The Terran Intervention
by AmeliusTheAlteran
Summary: It has been said that something as small as the flutter of a butterfly's wing can ultimately cause a typhoon halfway around the world. Now image what four massive EMPs could do in the midst of the Turian fleet above Shanxi. For want of a nail, civilizations will rise and fall. (REWRITTEN: Chapter 1-5)
1. Chapter 1

" _Hyperspace transition complete, Captain. We're holding exactly 100 AU from the star,_ " thought Navigation Officer Michaels over the neural network.

The report was redundant. Captain Burke's own neural interface gathered the same information directly from the ship. Should it be necessary, he could direct all the major functions of the ship solely from his chair. However, having a senior staff freed up the Captain to direct tactics and coordinate the ship as a whole.

" _Good._ _Sensors, analysis please._ " Despite receiving the data directing to his mind, that didn't mean the Captain understood everything being fed to him.

" _I'm seeing_ _a main sequence star of about 20 solar masses. Three orbiting planets, the second of which is terrestrial and in the habitable zone. Atmosphere is breathable if not a little heavy on the nitrogen. Temperature good, overall very habitable."_ As the officer was speaking, a holographic heads-up-display came to life infront of the Captain's eyes. It was much less mentally taxing that having the ship project a mental representation. Various reference lines and angles showed where the _Atlas_ -class vessel was in respect to the star and its invariable plane. All the orbital state vectors conveniently displayed for the Captain to see. " _Detecting artificial metals, electromagnetic radiation, fusion products typical of fusion engines, and gamma rays typical of matter-antimatter engines._ _Picking up... multiple anomalies._ "

" _Multiple?_ " The long range sensors had only seen one. Command didn't think that fluctuating amounts of dark energy could be a natural phenomenal and had sent the stealth vessel to investigate.

" _The original signature is from an object in an orbit 40 AU from the star. Designating A1 on tactical map. It's not emitting any heat, its superdense, and has an unknown element contained within,_ " told the officer. " _The rest are in geosynchronous orbit around the habitable planet, contained within ships of unknown make. Designating B1 through B29._ " That was a surprise, the long range sensors should have been sensitive enough to pick the ships up. Not to mention their hyperspace window should have been detected upon entrance to the system.

" _Captain! Detecting a vessel on approach to the system at superluminal!"_ Called out the sensors officer. _"Heading right for the large object A1._ _It's of the same type as the others, 87% profile match."_

" _Ah, so all of these ships only recently entered the system, and not by hyperspace_ _,_ " reasoned the Captain. " _Reestablish connection to command and confirm._ " The communications systems established sensor fusion with the long range sensors of the rest of the fleet, which confirmed the Captain's suspicions that the alien ships were newly arrived.

" _Details on these ships?"_

 _"No subspace radiation, but they're flooding the system with EM,"_ sensor officer Chambers replied. " _No trinium, no potentium, no neutronium. Armor of ablative and composite layers including boron carbide, silicon carbide, and several carbon composites and nanotube structural enhancements. Primary antimatter engines acting as reactors, backup fusion. The dark energy readings are the only thing of note."_

 _"Very Well. Michaels, prep the hyperdrive and plot a course for the first planet. Put it between us and them."_ Ordered Burke. _"Tactical, ready the ship for silent running and go to condition 1."_

A swirling maelstrom of green appeared as the dimensional barrier was breached. The hypnotizing whirlpool pulling the ship into its fathoms. No sooner did the ship enter did it leave. The hyper advanced, Alteran based, faster-than-light system taking seconds to travel millions of kilometers. The lumbering mass of a blue gas giant filled the enormous windows of the bridge. In truth the room had no windows and was within the ship, but you wouldn't be able to tell from the perfectly realistic projections.

" _Tactical, go full stealth,"_ commanded the Captain.

 _"Full stealth, aye Captain,"_ replied the officer _, "Phase cloak is online, graviton and subspace dampeners at full."_

 _"Sensors to passive,"_ called out Chambers.

 _"Communication at silent,"_ confirmed the Comms station.

" _Ion_ _engines offline and switching to inertial generator,"_ finished Michaels.

" _Plot a course for high orbit of the habitable planet,"_ ordered Burke. _"And sensors and comms, bring subspace systems to active. If they don't use them, and we didn't detect any sensors, I doubt they'll give us away."_ A chorus of confirmations rang out to his orders.

The Captain prompted the computer to bring up a model of the unknown ships. They best way to describe them was avian. Thin wings sprouted from either side of the linear center section. Someone else might have been intimidated by the predatory craft, but Burke had seen much worse horrors. The subspace sensors of the _Into the Night_ left nothing unknown, every section of the ship mapped to the individual atoms. Burke made note of the railgun lining the center of the vehicle, and the missile silos on the sides. The thick, spaced, sloping armor showed the kinds of weapons it was designed to go against.

" _In_ _addition to_ _the main core,_ _d_ _ark energy fields are projecting from small emitters on the outside of the vessel. This results in extreme repulsive forces, a kinetic shield,"_ whispered a hushed, seductive voice into Burkes mind.

" _Minerva,_ _how nice of you to join us_ ," Burke greeted the ship's Intelligence. She was a human that had uploaded her consciousness; he still didn't understand why anyone would want to do that. Then again, she could always have a new body cloned and download back into it.

" _I was busy reporting data to command._ " Burke got the mental picture that she had just flipped her virtual hair in a rather indignant manner. " _Hopefully I don't need to tell you that they wish for us to observe and stay hidden."_

 _"_ _Alas, I was hoping to go in guns blazing_ ," He always had a rather peculiar relationship with the flirtatious virtual personality. With any other member of the crew he would have called it unprofessional, but dealing with an Upload was always a little bit different.

" _Captain! This is quite interesting,"_ the sensors officer practically yelled into his mind. _"The vessels are full of a new species; but there are humans on the planet!"_

" _Indeed, it looks like we just stumbled upon a little battle,_ " informed Minerva. _"Troops are being moved from orbit to the surface as we speak, thousands are already fighting on the ground. These vessels have established air superiority and are launching and recovering gunships. Based on what I see in terms of a defense garrison, this world will be occupied in weeks if not days."_

 _"Humans are being attacked?"_ asked the communications officer.

" _Let's not jump to any conclusions here. It is just as likely that they were the aggressors,"_ the Captain interrupted. Many human worlds had been encountered before, some peaceful and some aggressive. It was strange to find humans _here_ , but not unheard of and it didn't change their operating procedures.

" _We'll find out for sure in a second,_ " said Minerva, " _but first; look at this."_ The AI streamed the subspace sensors directly into the Captain's mind. The advanced instruments created a 3D rendered video based on what was being detected. He watched, in his mind, as a smaller ship lined its main armament up with the planet. Minerva so helpfully provided a trajectory for their landing; directly into a city.

" _Are their any civilians down there?_ "

" _There are humans without weapons or armor,"_ she replied. Captain Burke maintained silence for a few moments.

" _Their view on non-combatants may differ from out own. We still need more information. What else do you have?"_

 _"What about_ this?" The main viewing screens, which had been showing the approaching planet, changed to shadowed face. A dull orange light shown on the taut skin. The bridge in the background was quite different from the clean, geometric style that the _Into the Night_ had inherited from the Alterans. A few thick rectangular pipes ran along the roof, orange holograms were in many corners. The room held an ergonomic characteristic, yet dull despite the plentiful lighting.

"This is Captain Winfield of the SSV Amiens. We've come under attack at Reay 3... Enemy is fleet strength. The exploration vessel has been destroyed. SSV A... been destroyed... We canno... Hostile contact, I repeat hostile fi..." The replay cutoff abruptly; no static or warning, just a cut to black.

" _English?"_ Asked Burke in confusion. " _These humans must be from_ this _Earth_..."

" _Well, the ones that are still alive are,_ " simmered the AI.

" _Y_ _ou've sent this to command?"_ Burke expected she had. The ship intelligence managed the Combat Information Center, compiling and routing the information that the spy ship gathered.

" _Yes, sir. They're willing to let you act on your own discretion. But, you have to stay undetected."_

 _"Very well,"_ thought the Captain. " _You're really intent on getting involved, aren't you Minerva?"_

 _"The remaining_ _public and private networks on planet make it quite clear who the aggressors were,"_ defended the AI.

 _"Any luck on the alien ships' networks?"_ Asked Burke.

 _"_ _Pillaging at the moment. Helpfully similar to the architecture of these humans, making translation easier, but I'll still need some more refrences to make sense of anything. I'm currently trying to use any pictures or videos to piece together the language. Still hoping I'll run across a golden record."_

Burke looked over the depiction of the alien battlegroup, " _Tactical. Where are their army auxiliary vessels?"_

 _"The three closest to the planet, currently loading shuttles with supplies. Take those out and you stop the invasion dead in its tracks."_ As armies got increasingly complex so did their logistical train. Once again, Alteran technology had eliminated most of these problems. The _Into the Night_ could operate near indefinitely on its own. But these aliens didn't seem so lucky. Removing food, fuel, munitions, spare parts, construction materials, or even something as simple as spare clothing could devastate an offensive.

" _Command and Control?"_ Asked the Captain.

" _Their largest capital ship. It's sending, receiving, and routing a lot of comms from the fleet to the planet,"_ answered sensors officer Chambers.

" _Captain! Just found their first contact package. Picking apart the language sample, translating and decrypting their... got it. These aliens definitely started this school yard hustle. Even says so in their after-action reports. Their government has laws against using that object, apparently an FTL device, and see this as a justified policing action,"_ informed Minerva.

" _Ahh, so its like a supergate_. _Had the humans signed some treaty to abide by these laws?"_ asked Burke.

 _"No. This was first contact._ "

" _That's... completely ignoring the sovereignty of another government. They must be pretty presumptuous to think they can impose their laws onto an independent entity_ ," Burke said with unconcealed contempt.

" _Maybe these aliens see it as a matter of international law,"_ proposed Minerva with scorn, playing devil advocate.

" _No. T_ _hat would still need treaties to be established,"_ said Burke. " _These are warmongers."_

 _"I see we've come to the same conclusion,"_ remarked Minerva, sassily putting a virtual hand on her hip.

" _We could use some Type-19s,"_ the tactical officer suggested. " _R_ _emove their logistics and command ships."_

The Type-19 Anglerfish was the modern anti-ship torpedo. Using very similar stealth systems to the _Into the Night,_ it could move right up to its prey completely unnoticed. Its warhead harnessed the unpredictable and devastating exotic particles generated by an Arcturus device. It could even phase through the hull to deliver its payload directly into the heart of a ship.

" _The alien fleet has conducted four more bombardments on the city as we've been talking._ _"_ Minerva was already plotting the best path for the weapons to take. In the virtual-battlespace, a dotted red line stretched between their ship and the alien fleet.

"This is a terrible situation, but I can't justify the use of such a weapon on a civilization we've not even met. Not to mention the implications and political ramifications should we have future contact with this species and this were to come to light. Prepare four SQ-15s for launch, EMP payloads, target all logistics and C&C vessels," ordered the Captain. He simply couldn't order the death of people who had no qualms with him.

The SQ-15, nicknamed the Thornback, was a stealthy unmanned drone platform designed to carry payloads to the enemy and return undetected. When outfitted for EMP attacks, the drone's capacitors held enough energy to release a burst of microwaves near what you'd get from a coronal mass ejection hitting a planet's magnetosphere. A needed amount of power, as spaceships were heavily shielded to stop the run of the mill space radiation.

The Captain withdrew into the virtual battle-space. His neural interface placed him in a 3D representation of the area around his ship. The software giving him complete situational awareness, icons and data representing everything the ships sensors could see. Four dotted lines reached out from his ship toward the alien fleet, showing the projected weapon paths.

" _Ready to fire, Captain_." Stated the tactical officer.

" _Turn off their lights_."

" _Firing, aye Captain."_

On the outside of the _Into the Night_ , four dark objects were ejected from the vessel. Once separated from the ship they returned to the universe from out of phase, but just as quickly activated their own cloaking. Small inertial generators pushed them along in the darkness of the void. Passive subspace and EM sensors, preplanned pathing data, and a supplemental tight-beam neutrino communications from the _Into the Night_ ensured that the weapons were on the right trajectories.

The torpedos had to get right up next to their targets; as the strength of electromagnetic radiation decreased by the inverse square of the distance from its origin. And with the massive distances between ships in space, you could hardly expect to affect that many ships with one weapon.

The auxilary ships were first, their engines instantly shutting out. One began spinning about its end, having been in the middle of adjusting orbit with its maneuvering thrusters. A sparse number of backup systems came online inside, the emergency generators and life support systems being well protected enough to survive anything but near complete destruction of the ships.

The largest target, the command vessel, was a little more exciting to look at. A smaller vessel had been coming in to dock, and similarly disabled by the EMP. The collision of ships in space was silent, but beautiful in the slow trench being furrowed along the hull.

 _"Good hits. Four targets disabled,"_ Called out the tactical officer. "All _C4I support has ceased from the command vessel._ _Others are scrambling, detecting small interceptors performing expanding searches and rescue shuttles in route. Drones on return.."_

* * *

 **Hope you liked this. Rewritten as of March 13**


	2. Chapter 2

**Shanxi**

 **Alliance Command and Control**

General Williams looked down on the battlefield map. The small orange holographics dreadfully announced his impending doom. Marines had salvaged the invaluable piece of technology from Fort Jackson, rushing it out during the evacuation.

The fighting had started off well enough. The enemy simply didn't bring to bear enough fighters to gain complete air supremacy. There were no carriers attached to the invasion fleet, meaning the few air bases of Shanxi had numerical superiority.

This situation wasn't much of a surprise, the logistics of making an invasion were horrendous. It took years for the invasion in D-Day to be put together. This alien quick reaction force probably left with seconds to scrounge together materials. It's not surprising that a defending planet would be more numerous, as cargo is so limited in space craft.

Earth had millions of soldiers and tens of thousands of aircraft. It would take a literal armada to match those numbers in an invasion, much more than the fleet in orbit. Unfortunately, Shanxi wasn't Earth or Fortress Europe. Shanxi was a small but prosperous colony on the outskirts of System Alliance space. It's militia was nothing but a requirement, as set by the Anti-Piracy and Self Defense Acts of 2122.

The people of Shanxi had it easy; the fertile ground grew food for several harsher colonies. The farming all done by high efficiency automated machines. The pre-planned cities were spacious with wide roads for future growth. Green energy sources had been prebuilt to meet the fledgling colony's demand. Homelessness and joblessness was low, and those were easily met with state shelters and soup kitchens. Exports were so profitable to the colonial government that taxes were nearly nonexistent.

Government provided education was so well supported that they tied the two private institutions in ranking. Medical advances made on Earth in the past century meant that health care was cheap and easy. Health insurance had become a non-issue in politics, as it took but pennies out of the government's pockets. The world was simply a paradise. It promised to be a jewel in the stars, the first colonists lucky to get there so early.

But Eve had picked the forbidden fruit. The Garden of Eden was receiving a hail of fire and brimstone that would bury its people under piles of ashes.

The aliens threw their first forces into the meat grinder. Hundreds sent to their deaths to destroy the two main airbases outside Jinyang. Shanxi didn't have the area denial to stop the incoming shuttles. The planet was highly unpopulated, and defenses centered around the capital city. The aliens had an entire planet to pick their landing location, all they had to do was keep their distance from the main defenses.

When the enemy forces finally landed, they setup a steel umbrella; several interlocking mass effect barriers. An impenetrable beachhead for continued reinforcements. As the shuttles poured down, a withering network of GARDIAN lasers was erected to deterred any reprisals.

Then, thrust after thrust was sent to secure the defending air strips. The enemy hover tanks and personnel carriers sprinting across the uninhabited countryside. Each attack was nearly indecipherable from the next, an endless barrage of right hooks directly to the face. The enemy providing a textbook example of combined infantry and mechanized doctrine.

Unfortunately for the aliens, Mantis gunships were great anti-armor platforms. Element zero meant they could stay on target long without refueling, and their mass accelerators had plenty of ammo. Shanxi became the resting place of entire armored division. But it was a forgone conclusion. Who knows why the aliens hadn't don't it in the first place, but after the failed land attack; round after round of orbital fire scortched the airbases.

William's would've give anything for a proper base barrier, he bet they could've held out for weeks. Still, the General was lucky for what he had. What use was artillery against lightning fast pirate attacks? A few more years of lobbying may have even seen all of his armor support removed. He was the leader of a militia, after all, not an army.

General Williams, when he was in Fort Jackson near the capital city, realize his position was in shambles. Without the airbases, his planes would be down from neglected maintenance in days. Furthermore, Fort Jackson could just as quickly be obliterated from orbit as the airbases had. This quickly prompted an evacuation into the city, where he gambled the enemy wouldn't bombard because of civilians.

A makeshift runway was created out of the highway running through Jinyang for the remaining gunships, shuttles, and interceptors not caught in the orbital fire. Anything not bolted to the ground was shipped to this new base. Taking ideas from his enemy, General Williams had ordered the shields stripped from his artillery emplacements. These individually weak barriers were interlaced to create a strong lattice over his command area, not enough to stop orbital fire but enough to hold a few bombs and artillery.

The highway ran under the city for a good couple of miles. It was similar to the old Boston Big Dig, providing a perfect hardened fall back location and civilian shelter. This was where he had spent the last few days, putting all his time in the makeshift command and control area.

The initial assault on the city had gone well, bloodying the enemy in the new fighting environment. But the wide roads of Jinyang played right to the enemy, allowing them to push forwards in their tanks. It was only through prepared converging cones of fire that then lines hadn't completely broken; and even then, several bridges and tunnels had to be collapsed to prevent a break through.

For a while it seemed the aliens were resolved against civilian casualties. But their patience obviously wore thin, as they began bringing gunships to wipe out entire city blocks. Williams couldn't use the interceptors that had been saved, they were a trump card only to be used once. So he had responded with extensive MANPAD deployment, the enemy responded with more orbital fire. Small mushroom clouds blossomed as what once was a suburb became a grave yard.

So General Williams completely changed tactics, he pulled his armor completely back. He allowed the enemy to advance farther into the city, and planted marine squads in every ambush position imaginable. There would be no head on head fighting. The line between enemy and friendly territory blurred and orbital support couldn't be called without friendly fire, if they even cared that was. The aliens were forced into a door to door search of ever house as they pushed toward Williams' HQ, else they leave behind a squad of marine to stab them in the back latter.

It was a form of combat perfected by humans in the middle east. Each building could have a fire team, any bag on the road could be an explosive, a sniper was looking down every alleyway. And just when the aliens had gotten used to ambushes and hidden explosives, an actual attack would press straight ahead.

Two days ago he had received a call for surrender. No doubt the aliens, identifying as _T_ _oreens(?)_ , had just deciphered their first contact package. A message sent in peace, now being used in war. How ironic.

And surrender he would have to do. Not at that moment, but soon. It wasn't a problem of munitions. Element Zero made ammunition plentiful, at least for guns, they could last for a long while more. Eezo lightened vehicles used smaller amounts of fuel, he had a few more weeks on that front. No, his problem was a problem of food. Very soon General Williams wouldn't be able to feed the tens of thousands of civilians huddled under tents and sleeping on mats in the cold and damp floor of the highway tunnel. Soon he wouldn't have food to feed his militia. He cursed the people who decided to keep the massive food storehouses by the space port and away from the city.

That is where General Williams found himself. The enemy attacking from the north-west, gunships hammering city blocks, the occasional orbit fire support raining down _god be dammed_ if they killed their own troops. He couldn't retreat, he had no where to go if he left the city. There weren't any prepared tunnels in the forests, or caves in the mountains.

If only he had more supplies, then he could hold out for reinforcements. The enemy force was of a manageable size; you could only fit so many soldiers onto a ship, after all. He may even have numerical superiority. Their defense had already killed a large portion. But most of the planet's farms lied in the opposite direct he could retreat to. If they tried to fight out a guerrilla war they would sooner starve than be killed by the enemy.

"General, we have action in orbit," called out one of his technical assistants. The young man, practically a boy, had his fingers flying over a communications table. The small console was dedicated to off world comms, so it wasn't doing much but monitoring the enemy ships at the moment.

"Alert my commanders," first ordered General Williams. "Is it Alliance?" Hope filled the question despite General Williams' best attempt. Soon he would be at a point of no return, he needed help before then. Heck, he needed help now.

"I-I'm not sure, sir." Confusion evident in the boys voice as he tried to interpret his readings.

"Not sure? It either is or it isn't," said the General as he walked over to look at the young soldier's console. "Well, spit it out."

"U-u-um, multiple enemy ships just went silent. Their auxiliary attachment and the dreadnought to be exact, all of them in highly irregular orbits," reported the boy, pointing to undecipherable information on the projection in front of him.

"Disabled?"

"Most likely, they've made no orbital correction attempts."

"But no sign of any friendlies?"

"No, sir."

General Williams considered this information. It couldn't have been one of his, there were no ground-to-orbital weapons installed on Shanxi. If it was the Alliance, then a fleet would be engaging right now. But four ships randomly going offline?

"Are they firing on each other?"

"No indications of that, sir."

"General," quickly saluted Lieutenant General Maitland as he entered the command post. He had been a battalion commander at the start of the invasion but was promoted in the field. His unfortunate predecesor being caught in a gunship strafe. Very soon afterwards Colonel Rupert arrived, he was the commander of the remaining air units formed up under the 2nd Air wing.

"We are going to go on an immediate counter offensive," explained General Williams after catching his commanders up to speed. "Colonel, we're going to need an immediate strike on their advanced airfields. If we knock them out of the picture with their auxiliary ships down, we'll have complete air superiority. They'll have no reinforcments."

"Yes, sir. We should also take a look out at Lauderdale, recon shows they haven't even touched it," proposed the Colonel. Lauderdale was an out of the way airfield. The colonial government planned expansions out to the far north east, so a small landing strip had been built there. When the invasion started it was deemed too isolated to defend and Williams ordered its evacuation. It could still have spare parts, munitions, fuels, and practically everything their small air force needed.

"Perhaps after we achieve a break out. General, their command should be completely disrupted with the loss of their dreadnought. But we don't know how long that will last, we're gonna have to make this count," said Williams to Maitland.

"We can take advantage of the confusion and get the First and Second Battalions of the First Armored Brigade out through I-80 tonight. Have them circle around and close on their flank while we launch a counter. If we time it right we could form a pocket, they wouldn't dare fire on us from above with their army in such a position. We've seen what a mantis can do to their tanks, if we get air support we could make it work," said the Lieutenant General.

"They've pulled most of their reserves up, haven't they? We could go for the throat and hit their beachhead once we encircle the army, knock out the rest of their supplies," said Williams. The enemy hadn't had to worry above any rear-guarding actions, until now Williams was in no position to counter attack. Thus there weren't any real reserves.

"Yes, but the site is heavily defended by shields and GARDIAN, we'd take heavy losses trying to go for it from the air," thought Colonel Rupert out loud.

* * *

 **Into the Night**

 **Bridge**

" _We sure stirred up the hornets nest_!" Bubbly laughter spilled over the network from Minerva. The smallest alien vessels had begun aggressively patrolling around their disabled brethren. Small, one manned fighters had slipped right past the _Into the Night_ as they attempted to find the instigator. " _Command has reviewed the situation and agrees with your actions. They want you keep our presence hidden, needless to say."_

" _The defenders are making for a counter attack,_ " observed the tactical officer. Screens in the bridge helpfully brought up scans of aircraft being prepared for launch, infantry moving out, and a brigade of armored vehicles exiting the capital city to the south. The powerful subspace sensors on the stealth ship allowed them to see straight through the ground and into the makeshift bunker formed from the highway tunnel.

" _The aggressors?"_ asked Captain Burke, swiping his hand through the air so that the virtual display scrolled to the enemy positions.

" _Their General called for a halt. He's commanding from their beachhead location, but it doesn't seem to have the capacity to pick up the workload their capital ship was doing,"_ answered the tactical officer.

" _Minerva. Is the analysis of the FTL device complete yet?_ " Questioned Burke. The AI had been tasked with looking into the multi-kilometer long device holding a distant orbit in the system. Their ship had gotten another good scans of it in action, as a vessel had left the alien fleet to use the device and out of system.

It was an interesting piece of technology, very similar in use to the ancient Alteran hyperspace conduits that led from the Milky Way to nearby galaxies. At the same time, the device was completely strange. It worked on principles completely different than any studied by the United Terran States.

" _Its got this new element_ , _same as both sides of this conflict_ " started Minerva. " _With an atomic number of 0"_

" _Neutronium? That's not new,"_ questioned the Captain.

" _No, it's completely different. A different isotope, and its orbitals and nucleus are structured weirdly. It shouldn't be possible, really,"_ said Minerva.

" _Shouldn't be possible?"_ quietly chuckled Burke, those weren't words often used by the AI.

" _We knew there were going to be differences_ , _I just didn't think the laws of the universe would be changed_ ," protested the intelligence. " _I can list seventy-two different reasons why this element should rapidly degenerate. It's got no right to be stable!"_

 _"Captain!"_ Interrupted the sensors post. " _I've got something_ "

" _Show me_ ," commanded Burke, sitting straighter in his chair. The holographic representations of the FTL device fading away, being replaced by the alien Forward Operating Base on the planet below. The picture zoomed in, past the hurried arrival of shuttles that could not longer dock with the destroyed ships in orbit, past the roaming patrols and into a prefabricated building and down onto a storage container. A piece of technology was highlighted in red.

" _These aliens are barely a Type-3 Interstellar civilization. And only that with the FTL object they're using, no way this tech is theirs_ ," said Minerva, complaining at how her structured world was filling with so many exceptions. She preferred everything to work out just like she thought it out in her mind.

" _No need to keep me guessing_ ," prompted Burke. He summoned the ship to provide him some data, revealing a sensor reconstruction of what could be called an art sculpture. Twin white arms encircling a pulsing blue light.

" _Electromagnetic_ _based neural manipulator. Sitting right in the middle of their beachhead_ ," told Chambers, the sensors officer. " _Whoa!_ _I'm also seeing some serious nanotech. Definitely a third party here."_

 _"Same as the FTL device?"_ asked Burke.

" _Well, they're both advanced compared to the two conflicting factions, but I'd need more details to see."_ said Minerva. " _C_ _an't rule it out though."_

" _Interesting, let's not leave it to these aliens_. _Should we beam it up_? _"_ decided Burke. The _Into the Night_ could instantaneously transport matter through its Asgard derived, and Alteran upgraded, transporter.

 _"Sgt. Griffin is itching to stretch his legs_ ," suggested Minerva.

" _Very well, is his team_ _ready?_ " asked the Captain.

" _I have then suited up already, Captain_." The stealth ship had several direct action team assigned to it. In addition to the security forces already station onboard, these solider were specifically for any stealthy Tier-1 actions that the stealthy ship might need to be done.

" _Might as well cause some more trouble_ ," commanded Burke. " _T_ _ell him to give these aliens another headache_."

* * *

The four man team exited out of the back ramp of the Jumper Mark-II. The small orbital insertion vehicle was an upgrade of the Lantean gate ship design. It was a remarkably versatile craft, being able to fit through a stargate with ample cargo space yet housing powerful engines and weapons. It's cloaking made it a mainstay of special forces since its introduction.

The Mark-II was simply a more ergonomic design than the original cylinder shaped craft. It had been slightly modified to be easily mass produced. All but two of the expensive interior drone missiles were replaced with particles weapons, as the missiles tended to be expended too quickly in battle.

The insertion team was equipped with top of the line stealth armor. The suits were fully mechanized but not overly bulky. They stuck close to the body yet had enough give for easy movement. The anti-gravity modules helped the soldiers move lightly in the armor, aided by the use of lightweight alloys. The full head helmets had no visors, that would be a weak point, instead closing completely over the face and reconstructing an image of the outside.

The suits were mostly focused on stealth. The aforementioned anti-gravity modules helped keep an unnoticeable footfall. A plethora of cloaking devices kept the users from any sensors. Compared to regular infantry, or specialized heavy units, these stealth armors weren't that protective. Of course, they weren't designed to be and could still decimate a 21st century battlefield.

The weapons the soldiers carried were similarly inconspicuous. They were very clean looking, with curving and organic lines running on the outside of the dull white metal. The best description would be to take a stealth fighter and turn it into a sub machine gun. You couldn't see any openings or marks on the weapons, just the flat metal.

Further inspection would reveal no barrel opening, just a small indentation at the front. The stun rifles fired quick bursts of small energy bolts. They could overload a nervous system of fry a computer, but did no environmental damage. Perfect for quiet work.

As the four man team exited out of the back ramp, they fell down the forty meters the jumper had been hovering. The whole time the shuttle and the men were invisible to any means of detection. At least, any means available to these aliens. The insertion team phased through the roof of the warehouse prefab building, before using thrusters to come to a stop on the ground level. The anti-gravity modules made it easy to use thrusters on a powered armor suit.

A mini-fusion reactor powered each suit, with subspace capacitors drawing extra dimensional energy as a backup. These power sources supplied the hungry computers and technology in the suits. Said devices analyzing every part of the base around the soldiers.

Neural interfaces in the suits streamed data directly into the minds of the soldiers, and allowed them to use their minds to hack like an AI. To the soldiers, it seemed as if there weren't any helmets on their head. Instead, each solider had their vision completely reconstructed by the sensors of the suit. In the corner of their eyes a small map showed the movement of friendlies and enemies and the layout of the area. Icons identified everything from cameras to the closest enemy. With a stray thought these professional could see through walls or zoom their vision onto the smallest piece of dirt in the room.

Flashing red warnings popped up, their suits warned that defensive measures were being taken. Some type of radiation would interfere with their neural interfaces. Each soldier prompted their suit, and got an x-ray look inside the shipping container they had surrounded. A tripod propped up a piece of artwork. Two spiraling arms of slick white metal enclosed a pulsing blue light. It didn't seem too harmful.

Then again; Lantean head suckers didn't seem that dangerous either. But get too close and they would turn your brain into jello.

"Archer, Jackson. Secure the package," ordered the team leader.

The two men phased into the side of the shipping container, completely bypassing the locks and alarms on the front.

"Thing's rigged, shit will go down when we move it," reported Archer, looking at the small alarms attacked to the device.

"Turn then off."

"Last one's a deadman switch. If it stops transmitting they'll know the object is gone. I can fake it, but as soon as we leave they'll know," told Archer.

"Doesn't matter. They'd realize it was gone eventually," said Staff Sgt. Griffin.

"Sgt., there's a body in the next container. Human, active cybernetics and nanites matching the artifact," called out Warrant Officer Portland.

"Don't quite feel right taking a body. Command?" Asked the team leader.

" _The artifact is enough of a sample for us,_ " Minerva replied.

"Destroy the extra tech then," instructed Griffin.

Portland phased through the container, aiming her energy weapon at the body. With a flash of blue, all the nanites had been rendered useless.

"Alright, Portland you're with me. We're gonna do a little more intervention. Archer, when the commotion starts take Jackson and the package to the primary extract."

The two special forces soldiers moved off through the ground level building, their HUDs guiding them to the best targets to cause a disruption. They stalked past massive store rooms of munitions, fuels, and other logistics before coming outside. A massive trailer like vehicle had clamped itself into the ground and was stretching an antenna into the air.

Griffin grabbed ahold of its control interface, his suit interfacing directly with the shield generator. It was un-networked so he had to do this manually. Within a few minutes he and Portland had made it to five other important locations and tampered with them all.

They moved with efficiency but not hurry. Knowing nothing here could pose a threat, except maybe orbital bombardment.

With a thought, the team leader pushed instruction to the jumper to meet at the extraction point.

" _Get ready_ ," thought Griffin to his team members. Within a few seconds, the malware planted in the shield generators activated. The technology may have been alien, but it was in binary just the same; the neural interfaces making it child's play to manipulate, and Minerva helping out a little too.

" _Sir, we're on the way to the LZ, but we've ran into a prison block. Multiple humans,"_ called out Jackson over the neural net.

" _Your choice, just get to the extract in five,_ " responded the team leader. Griffin and Portland were nearly to where the jumper would land, a small clearing outside the main concrete wall of the alien beachhead. A small depression in the grass was all that signaled the presence of the aerospace craft. Luckily, their helmets provided an outline of the invisible craft for them to see. The moment the two stepped across the threshold, the hyperadvanced interior became visible again.

Seconds later Archer and Jackson arrived, the latter supporting the artifact in an anti-gavity field. The wrist projected field easily supporting the heavy object. He set the device down on the floor of the jumper, an energy field quickly encompassing it to stop its harmful attacks. Already it had tried to electrocute the unseen force moving it along, stopped by Jackson's energy shielding.

* * *

 **Shanxi**

 **Jinyang**

 **Underneath East Kings Road**

Lance Corporal Norman Goodwin crept through the small underground cable pipe. Trying as hard as he could to squeeze through in his marine scout sniper armor.

The aliens' biggest mistake had been invading off first contact. They knew next to nothing about humans. They didn't know human fighting style, doctrine, the weapons and vehicles in service, or even the typical number of soldiers in a squad or platoon. But most importantly, they didn't know anything about human cities. All throughout the invasion the aliens had been ambushed and surprised by soldiers using their superior knowledge of Jinyang. It was a terrible mistake for an attacker.

The invaders had been quick enough to block off sewage systems, check back alleys for cut throughs, eventually getting to know the favored IED tactics of humans. But they simply couldn't know everything.

Jinyang streets had been designed with the future expansion of utilities in mind. In addition to sewage pipes, there were large conduits for all the networking cables needed to satisfy the internet needs of modern civilization. As part of the current counter offensive, hundreds of marines were crawling through these pipes towards the aliens' lines. The marines would engage the defenders and hopefully use surprise to push them off their prepared defenses. This would allow the 3rd Battalion of the 1st Shanxi Armored Brigade to push forward without running head first into prepared anti-tank positions.

Goodwin pulled himself into an uncomfortable crouch as the squad in front of him came to a halt. He clicked off the lights from his helmet, sunlight streaming down from the entrance above. He stepped onto the knee of the marine helping people climb upward, giving a small push so he could grab a handhold above. Another marine helped by grabbing his arm and pulling him up over the ledge.

Goodwin looked around, they had exited in a giant server room. The cable pipe opened in a back maintenance room where the dozens of fiber optics ran to massively powerful computers. The marine platoon was quickly checking their weapons and forming up into their squads.

"C'mon marines, this op is kicking off in thirty minutes!" shouted out a Lieutenant to the last people climbing up out of the ground.

Goodwin waited for his spotter to climb out of the tunnels, before dragging him up the stairs of the office building. They quickly traversed up the fourteen stories to the top floor. The nondescript concrete steps quite the difference from the rest of the futuristic interior of the office building. They came out of the stairwell into a small foyer. Four unpowered elevators sat in the side walls and two glass doors led to an office space. Without a key card the doors refused to be opened, but the glass quickly shattered after a few kicks.

The office area was eerily quite and empty. No forces had been up here, the small carrels and larger offices completely untouched. On one desk sat a giant bell with a sign reading, 'Ring when signing a new client!'. Goodwin led the way to the north-western corner of the floor. He kicked in an office door, carefully checking each corner with his weapon.

The large area was no doubt for some big wig in the company. A television hung on one of the walls and three monitors were hooked together behind a desk. The rolling chair looked very comfortable to Goodwin's eyes.

Two giant glass doors ran floor to ceiling and led out to a patio. Looking out one could see the scared urban battlefield. Goodwin slung his pack off of his back, unpacking the M-82 Cobra from within. Meanwhile, his spotter carefully opened the doors leading outside. A bipod spread out from his sniper rifle and rested on the floor and a cloth was put over his scope to prevent any glares.

" _Overwatch-32 in position,"_ Goodwin said into his radio. Looking through his scope the marine tried to see the defensive line setup by the aliens. Using his HUD he marked a few locations with his rangefinder and pulled up relevant data like wind speed.

"Thousand two-hundred meters out, fast food sign on Fairfield street. Marking it on the HUD," said his spotter in a loud mumble, "Enemy roadblock setup just below."

"I see it," confirmed Goodwin. A series of barriers, made of a concrete like materials, protected a large machine gun and closed off the four lane road. Swinging his camera around the sniper saw a few collapsed pieces of fabric that may have been used the night before as sleeping tents. A small amount of movement caught his eye from inside the next door building. "Eyes on hostiles, next-door building. Small electronics store."

"Pushing info to the tac-map," said his spotter. A small red arrow appeared above the area and would be sent to the HUDs of the marines fire teams. "Two minutes," counted down Brady, his spotter.

Goodwin reached to his wrist where he activated his electronics to full. They had been running mostly silent to avoid the aliens picking up a spike in comms. Numerous little blue dots started appearing on his HUD. They were moving through buildings and back alleys, all making their way towards the enemy. Other red arrows appeared all along the enemy defensive line, showing where friendlies had marked enemy positions.

Looking into the corner of his vision, Goodwin counted down the seconds as his clock came to zero. Almost immediately several rockets leaped into the air. Looking through his sight, Goodwin watched the explosions as his fellow marines started the assault.

"Heavy weapon is being manned," called out Brady. Moving his scope Goodwin brought his crosshairs onto the machine gun. An alien had ran out to the gun without even putting his helmet on. The alien armor was distinctive, the chest and back expanding dramatically to cover the alien's thick carapaces. The sniper rifle automatically adjusted for range, drop, wind, humidity, and even the spin of the planet.

In between breaths Goodwin carefully squeezed his finger around the trigger. The force of a hypervelocity round leaving the barrel slammed into his shoulder. Thankfully, marine snipers were delivered specially designed armor with shoulder pads to mitigate the blow.

The single shot blew through the barriers and armor of the alien. Some had called the Cobra over-powered before the invasion. Paper pushers called for weaker firing snipers that cold put more rounds downfield. They said more sniper suppressing fire was ideal in modern combat, where shields rendered machine gun fire less dangerous. Nut mostly they just wanted to axe the expensive anti-material rifle. The Cobra, after all, had a 2.5 second cool down after every shot and if shot too many times in a row could dangerously overheat. This meant it not only had a slow rate of fire but often had to be repaired from melting.

These aliens, though, had barriers much stronger than the alliance. The cobra could punch through them in a single shot while the weaker 'marksman rifles' took multiple. Considering the disadvantage human were at, Goodwin was glad he had the Cobra.

"They're going for armor," called Brady. Sure enough, several aliens were pulling camouflage off of a hovercraft. The alien armored vehicles were the heaviest of tanks. They had massive barriers and sloped frontal armor, with cannons that could decimate human tanks. Distinctive little wings swept back on both sides, just like their space vessels. The tank was just like the strict and slow fighting doctrine that the alien armies followed.

It was a far cry from the flexible tanks of the Alliance. The Alliance called for swarm tactics, fast and cheap tanks that could provide a quick lightning assault of multiple rounds from the main gun. They were easily deployed, had a small logistical footprint, and kept good maintenance. Suffice to say, the Russians had won out on tank doctrine within the alliance.

Unfortunately, the fact that the alien tanks were hovercraft rendered most of the maneuverability of the alliance treaded tanks moot. Their barriers, armor, and guns furthermore completely outmatched humans. The armor battles were slaughters reminiscent of WW2 Sherman versus Tiger battles. Except the alliance tanks didn't have the luxury of a massive numbers advantage. There were more alliance tanks sure, it was hard for the aliens to ship many tanks through space without a huge effort, but the numbers weren't too lopsided. The infantry situation was nearly as bad, but the flexibility and tactics of human infantry was much more effective than for the tanks.

Four shots rang out as Goodwin halted the alien's attempts to get into their vehicle. Seconds later friendly forces rushed through the position, trading fire with the enemy but letting their shields take the damage while they rushed for cover. Command should be happy with the capture of the tank.

Looking closer to his position, Goodwin noticed a column of alliance tanks speeding up through the road. He winced as one hit what must have been a disrupter land mine, its twisted form flipping over to the side of the road. The next tank quickly fired out a rocket propelled line charge to destroy the remaining minefield.

Goodwin tracked his rifle across his designated area, trying to find additional targets to neutralize. A loud crack told his ears that there was an enemy sniper on the field. One of the friendly marine fire teams marked an area on the tactical net that they thought the sniper was in. With some searching Brady was the first to spot it.

"Marking him now, roof of a small strip mall," whispered the spotter, as if the enemy could hear him.

In seconds the Lance Corporal had eliminated the threat, only waiting a moment for his weapon to cool before similarly taking out the alien spotter. Looking off to the distance he could see the approach of a few enemy gunships, their reaction to the assault almost immediate. But before he could mark them two friendly interceptors had already streaked by and wrecked the alien machines. One of which crumpled and distorted in the spectacular display of an exploding mass effect core.

" _Warthog 1-2 on station and ready for tasking_!" Came out over the radio as the aircraft prepared to drop ordinance on the alien positions. Flashing red circles speared on his HUD, showing where friendlies had called for close air support.

Goodwin reached back for his sweat rag. He pulled off his helmet and cleared the moisture poring down his face. There was something about seeing the life fall from a body that he couldn't get out of his mind. It didn't matter that these were aliens, that they had killed thousands of human. Seeing their bodies fall like rag dolls stained his eyes.

Slipping his helmet back on, Goodwin prepared for more action. The alien defenders were rushing to meet the unexpected human offensive, running right into his scope. One after another fell to the ground with their weird blue blood splattering the ground.

"That's what I'm talking about! You just blew Roark's numbers out of the water!" Brady slapped him on the back.

"Shut up!" Goodwin pushed his spotter off. He took his rag, drenched by now, and wiped more sweat off his face.

" _We're pinned down in grid 232593, requesting immediate fire support!_ " The cry for help knocked Goodwin back to his senses, pulling his helmet back on and lining the scope up to the HUD.

An armored personnel carrier had forced its way through a small maintenance garage and right on top of a marine squad. Reaching forward on his rifle Goodwin pulled a switch to activate the high velocity weapon mod. A short warm up over charged the capacitors in the weapon. Goodwin lined his sight up to the vehicle, aiming for where he learned the weapon operator sat.

A massive crack echoed out of his weapon and the force threw his shoulder into pain. Looking back down his scope Goodwin saw that the anti-material rifle had punched right through the armor of the vehicle and hit something important. The APC was now a flaming ball of metal.

* * *

 **Shanxi**

 **Alien Beachhead**

"Jack!"

Explosions ripped apart everything. The face of terror collapsed down upon him. Fire. Fire everywhere. Thousands burning alive.

"Jack!"

A claw reached down from above. Suffocating everything it clutched.

"Harper wake up right this instant!"

Ships blotted out the sky. Descending upon the universe in the inevitable changing of the tides.

"We have to go!"

Jack struggled to pull in a massive breath. His whole body was shaking and sweat poured down his face. His vision was blurry, struggling to make out the light that flooded his eyes. A claw was reaching for him. The same claw. He jerked away, curling his body away from the terror.

"Jack!? C'mon!"

"W-what?" _Eva_? Jack blinked the stars out of his eyes. Shaking his head, the claw changed into a hand. Eva was reaching for him. Jack realized he was laying down on a cold floor. Looking around he saw a small room with metal walls.

"This is our chance, we've got to go!" Eva grabbed Jacks arm. She pulled him through the sliding door that had been ripped out of the wall. He struggled to pull his feet underneath himself. He was so weak. He _couldn't_ be weak.

"Where are we?" Jack rasped through his dry throat.

"The alien said he was taking us to his ship, put us here half an hour ago. I'd guess he left us at their FOB waiting for a shuttle," she explained.

"Their beachhead..." he mumbled out. "The cell door? How?" It wasn't a specific question, but Eva understood.

"I don't know. Something ripped it apart right in front of me," she explained, "alarms were going off and the guards had all already rushed away."

"Wait -Ben!? Where's Ben?" Jack turned hysterical as he remember his fallen brother.

"They took his... body, when they threw us in there," Eva said softly. "C'mon Jack, he'd want us to save ourselves. We can come back again if we have to!" Eva tried to rationalize to Jack.

"No. No!" Jack pulled against her, forcing her to take a turn off the hallway they'd been running down. "I can... f-find him."

Jack pulled Eva down several corridor, just barely managing to keep his feet underneath him. He took a left, then a right, and then another left. To Eva it seemed as if he was going in circles, but Jack appeared to have a destination in mind. Every blaring alarm and loud shouts out of the speakers urging them to sprint fast.

They rounded a final corner and came upon one of the aliens standing outside a large cargo door. The low ranking guard had no chance against the two experienced mercenaries. While Jack couldn't do much in his state, Eva was perfectly capable of subduing the avian beast.

Jack ran up to the heavy blast door. Banging his hands against the metal frame in desperation. Looking around, he noted the oddly shaped orange panel on the wall. Taking a look down at the aliens weird hands, Jack realized it was an alien hand scanner. With help from Eva, Jack dragged the alien up to the door and placed its hand to the scanner. The door smoothly slid open after a short unlocking sound.

Eva picked up the alien's rifle, giving Jack the pistol. He was in no shape to be shooting the larger gun. They then proceeded into the next room.

Large metal cargo containers were stacked in a few small rows. The doors on the front of each had a glowing red half-square, Jack guessed that meant they were locked. Jack walked straight towards one in the middle, taking hold of the pistol and delivering shot after shot into the console. The first few shots destroyed the computer, the next few wrecking the entire interface, and finally the small hypervelocity rounds destroyed the entirety of the locking mechanism. A gaping hole was where the panel used to be.

Eva moved to pull open one the doors to the container. Jack was quick to move in. He stood still and quietly over a lumped mass. Eva quickly followed in after him, looking over his shoulder at the body of her friend. She moved forward and quietly pulled the cover off of him, but quickly jerked backward and let out a small scream.

"What did they do to him?" she gasped. Scars littered his face, under which a blue metal shined dully. His eyes were wide open and but gave off no life. Just a dull stare in the distance.

"It. Not they," quietly said Jack. He pulled closed his friend's eyes and walked to the back of the crate. He bent over to pick up their confiscated equipment. He slipped on his armor and slapped his dual pistols onto his hips. A rustle of light over his body signified that his shield had activated. Eva followed his example.

Jack stretched out his limbs, the slight weight of the armor almost to much for his injured body. Why hadn't he purchased the armor with powered movement asisst?

"Pull him out, I'm gonna look in another's container." Jack quickly left the, leaving Eva to struggle to pick up their friend. She eventually pulled Ben out, then searched for where Jack went.

"It was here," Eva heard Jack say. Turning a corner she saw that Jack had broken into the next cargo crate.

"What was?" asked Eva.

"It," said Jack with conviction. Eva understood; the artifact.

"Come on Jack, we've got to go," she prompted softly. Eva didn't know what was up with Jack. But they had to get out of here, then she could find out what was wrong with him.

Jack poked his head around the threshold, looking for any sign of aliens. Looking out to the right he saw dozens crowding around one of their mobile shield generators. Eva stopped behind the corner to take a rest, pulling Ben's body against the wall.

"Looks like the sirens are because their shields are down," said Jack.

"Did the alliance do this?" asked Eva, still catching her breath from carrying her dead friend.

"No, they'd have just as quickly blown this place up. Must've been a malfunction or something," said Jack. He then pulled Eva out the door and quickly headed in the opposite direction of the aliens. They sprinted away, them both pulling Ben along behind them, trying to escape before anyone noticed. When they came to the edge of the base, the last obstacle was climbing over the tall concrete-like barriers erected around the base. Security was lax, but then again the battle was far away and the aliens were focused on their shield malfunctions.

Jack knelt to the ground for a second, running his hands through the grass. Eva looked over and saw that the ground had a large depression in it, like something heavy had sat there.

"It was here," muttered Jack. "Why can't I hear it anymore?"

Eva quickly grabbed onto Jack and pulled him away. They needed to get as far from the base as they could. They sprinted towards a thin tree line in the distance, it would provide a semblance of cover. Jack collapsed as soon as they made it to the trees. He had never felt this exhausted.

"Let's go, Jack. They'll send out patrols as soon as they notice we're gone," said Eva.

"Just, give me a second," wheezed the mercenary. He then reached down on his armor to activate a radio. As soon as he turned it on voices shouted right out.

"... _Wolf 1-5,_ _Warthog 1-2 checking in orbiting north 20 mikes at Angels 12. Ordinance is at full. 0+40 time on station. Ready for tasking, how copy? ... Overlord, Delta 3-2 engaging hostiles armor by shopping mall in grid 276839, request Broadsword support ... Overlord, Charlie 1-3. Relay to Bandit, good effect on target. Break. Enemy armor destroyed. Break. Request Bandit sweep left and clear remaining hostiles in AO. Over ... Charlie 1-3, Overlord copies all. Roger on Relay. Out ..."_

"Shit. We're missing the good stuff," laughed Jack deliriously, leaning against a tree trunk.

"What?" asked Eva, propping Ben up against another tree. She was still on alert, looking around with her rifle in hand.

"Warthog... that's a mantis callsign. Delta and Charlie are full marine regiments," reasoned Jack. "Williams must be on an offensive!"

"Well what are you waiting for? Call us in some evac."

" _Overlord, Overlord this is Darkstar Actual. Authentication Mike Alpha November. Stand by for report, over,"_ Jack called into his radio,

 _"Darkstar Actual, this is Overlord. Send your traffic, over."_ Came back through the radio, a younger radio operator directing the flow of information all over the battlefield.

" _Shields over enemy FOB have been neutralized. Break. Enemy HVT-1 last sighted in FOB. Break. Darkstar 1-3 is KIA, requesting immediate evac. Break. How copy so far, over?"_ Jack reported to command.

 _"Uhh say again line 1? Over."_

 _"Shields over enemy beachhead are down! How copy?"_

" _Solid copy Darkstar Actual. Routing a kodiak to your location, ETA 20 mikes. Keep your heads down, that FOB won't be standing for long."_

"Eva, we're getting out of here," said Jack, closing his eyes as he finally rested.

* * *

 **Edited March 14**


	3. Chapter 3

**One Month Earlier**

 **Stargate Universe**

"Impressive, isn't it."

The voice knocked Captain Burke out of his stupor. Admiral Elliot had snuck up behind him, the man of five-hundred plus years not making a single sound as he approached. The miracle of modern medical technology had kept the legend alive throughout his service in the US Air Force, later the US Space Force, and eventually the Terran Navy. Burke attempted to give a salute but was quickly waved away.

"The culmination of Alterran understanding of the universe. Millions of years of research leading to this very point," spoke Elliot. "You'll have to excuse my excitement, I've become quite the scholar over the years."

Burke wasn't that surprised. Gene-therapy and accelerated evolution meant that humans could learn the most complex subjects as easy as breathing, and retain the information eidetically. Nanotechnology and neural networks meant information could be dowloaded directly into the mind. Over the past several hundred years humanity had transitioned into a society where everybody could be a genius.

Burke had parked himself in the middle of the station's observation deck. A massive sculpted dome of translucent metals, allowing a breathtaking experience. It gave him a perfect view of the rest of the ring structured station, made of the typical milky white and clean grey Alterran alloys. Skyscraper like protrusion shot off from this main section, some even connecting to smaller satellite structures and docks. On the far side of the station he could see two _Lantea_ -Class Cruisers maneuvering toward one such location.

"I have some interest in the subject myself. You'll have to excuse me, though, as I'm not too well read. What I don't understand is; the Alterrans were exploring alternate realities as early as their first settlement of the Milky Way. So, what makes this station special?" Asked Burke.

"A long time ago I was lucky enough to witness the recovery of an alternate-reality mirror. A thought experiment that turned out to be one of the Alterran's greatest scientific achievements. The idea was to build half of a gateway in this universe, and if there truly were infinite universes then one of them would have built the other half of the gateway," explained Elliot. "They were magnificent devices, by having connecting gates in both universes one could easily breach dimensional barriers."

Burke gazed back out of the viewing window, looking at the nearby nebula. A recent supernova, recent in terms of the universe, had ionized the outer edges of the gas cloud and produced the most alluring glowing patterns.

"But these devices are limited. They can only connect to alternate universes where alternate-Alterrans had built a connecting gateway. Infinite other universes out of reach! This station changed that," explained Elliot. "Universes where Alterrans never evolved could be explored. Can be explored, by us."

"Would humans even be on Earth without the Alterrans?" asked Burke.

"That's exactly the type of question we're going to answer."

Burke admired the view for some time more, the Admiral slipping away after a few brief conversations on the expeditionary force and what would be expected of himself and his ship. Finally, the Captain turned away from the sight when he received a ping from his ship's AI, telling him that it was almost time for departure. Minerva wasn't technically a true AI, considering she was an uploaded human, but human culture had long called any sentient intelligence not confined to a biological host an artificial intelligence.

He had his ship beam him into the Captain's Quarters. The room was spacious and well decorated, a pleasant area for him to relax. Captains didn't spend much time doing paperwork, anymore. All was electronic and easily filled out by the ship's assigned Intelligence, reviewed and signed off by the Captain over the neural network. He didn't spend much time reading reports either, they were quickly downloaded into his mind. He did spend time sitting down and contemplating, just because you could download information directly didn't mean you completely understood it. There were times he would sit down and review battles and ship details in his head, thinking over actions and making up new plans.

Walking out of his room he headed towards to the bridge, using a transporter to go two levels down in the process. First he had to walk through Command Information Center, CICs had been mostly rendered obsolete by the introduction of neural networks and virtual battle spaces. Command ships still had CICs to direct fleets, and so did stealth ships like _Into the Night._

Stealth ships would be collecting terabytes of data per second while on mission. The data would be sent to dedicated off-ship analysis stations, but the CIC allowed for preliminary examination to direct the ship's sensors to anything of note. The CIC would work directly with the ships AI, which was also the normal CIC method of communication to the bridge.

As he entered the bridge, Burke received salutes from his subordinates, whom he quickly told to resume their posts. Sitting in the Captain's chair quickly initiated an authentication program, making sure not only of his identity but that he was of sure mind and not influenced in any way. These sorts of checks were necessary after decades of fighting subversive species that would do anything to obtain a Terran ship.

Burke triggered a display to bring up the fleet composition, making a last minute check of the situation. The center of the operation was the _USRV DAVIES,_ a _Amundsen_ -class explorer named after one of the scientists in the original 1945 stargate program. The two and a half kilometer vessel could do everything from research to colony fabrication. It housed some of the most powerful sensors of Terran make, with state of the art equipment for stellar mapping and information technology to monitor any form of communication.

It had enough energy production to run industrial sized construction forges. These technical marvels could create matter straight from energy; although, that took so much power that constant use would sap the ship dry. Thus, hundreds of mining probes were stored in the explorer to gather resources to feed the forges. Rearranging matter was a lot more energy efficient than creating matter from scratch, especially if the source material is close to the desired product. For example, turning mined naquadah into weapons grade liquid was relatively easy in terms of power requirements compared to trying to do the same with, say, limestone.

This same technique was used for creating Terran ships. Individual forges would create a modular section than would be beamed into place. Later, a larger scale forge would comb over the ship and connect the sections and add final touches.

The explorer had a primary escort in the form of Admiral Elliot's _Pulsar_ -Class battleship the _USS Bright Giant_ , continuing the trend of naming battleships after stellar objects. It was the lead in the expeditionary force consisting of two _Lantea_ -class cruisers, named after the battle for the planet; and five _Treadwell_ -class destroyers, named after the hero from SG-7.

The cruisers were of the missile variety, having thousands of the Alterran-based drone missiles and other more destruction oriented torpedoes. The destroyers were designed as anti-fighter and missile platforms for the cruisers and battleship, capable of doing really any screening assignment. All vessels had Asgard fighter screens, transporters that could deconstruct anything that got too close. But in case of shielded fighters or long range missiles or projectiles, the destroyers were there with plenty of rapid firing particle and energy weapons.

The destroyers could also be hunters, forming packs and picking off the enemy fleet. They could use Anglerfish torpedoes for long range duels, or make devastating alpha strikes with their plasma weapons; which were concentrated to the front for just such an attack.

The Pulsar-class battleship was a three an a half kilometer warship. It had a large main weapon running down the ship, based on Lantean defense satellites but with a traversable emitter, but also had enough broadside plasma beam weapons for a slugging fight.

Captain Burke's own vessel was a Naval Intelligence ship currently attached to the task force. It was an new vessel. Construction forges, matter transporters, and construction bots meant that building new ships was easy. Because of this, the _Into the Night_ looked brand new.

There wasn't much of a mothball fleet, the retired ships being fed into the matter constructors for making the new ships. Or sold off to allies; their advanced systems removed of course.

The lack of a mothball fleet was made up for by the speed at which ships could be built and the mothball shipyards. This speed was only hampered by available energy; and with stellar scoops, zero point energy, and the plethora of other Alteran technology there was never a lack of it.

" _Captain, the window is approaching_ ," informed Minerva.

" _Thank you, please tell the crew to prepare for transition_."

Burke watched as the space station prepared to activate its portal. Behind the station was a black hole which the portal would be leaching energy from about now. Small little wormholes reaching into the event horizon to steal from the impenetrable sink.

The structure of the station detached from the inner ring, which began to spiral at a slow hypnotizing pace. Burke thought he could see something forming in the center of the ring, but just as he squinted at it there was an exploration of light.

An opaque veil of blue liquid settled in the ring. Burke knew he was looking at a containment field, to stop the two universes from rushing into each other in attempt to reach equilibrium.

This analysis didn't stop his gaze from admiring the other worldly flow of the veil. How it fluttered like a scarf caught in the wind, occasionally an unseen force would shake it tremendously before settling back down.

The unfortunate reality of a stealth ship was that you would be both in the safest most dangerous of situations. This was one such situation. Despite sending multiple probes through the gate before, Burke couldn't shake the nervousness of being the first ship through.

" _Alright Minerva, bring us to condition two and go to silent running_ ," ordered Burke, " _Set a course to bring us through in two minutes_."

" _Go down the rabbit hole, aye captain_ ," replied the cheeky woman.

The transition through the portal was as smooth as any super gate. There was this feeing, though. Burke just couldn't stop a shiver of wrongness from flowing though him. It was like being told he didn't belong.

" _Background radiation readings match the earlier probes. This is the same alternate universe_ ," informed the sensors officer.

" _Anything else_?" Asked Burke.

"Yes, sir. _I've pinged the probes, they have mapped out the nearby systems. Nothing of note_."

Burke looked at the screen he'd pulled up, showing the habitable planet in the system. It was a typical Alterra planet, a perfect fit for humans due to their mastery of terraforming. A paradise in every sense of the word.

" _Any detailed scans on the planet_?" Asked Burke. The probes had detected Alterran structures, but they were notorious for being impossible to scan. These even more so.

" _No, sir. The interference is still up; we're lucky to see anything, and that it's not a full on cloak_." Burke nodded at this, they would have to go down and turn it off the scrambling field manually, but it could've been worse. There had been Alterran stations in the Sol system not found until coordinates led directly to them.

" _Very well, send the confirmation through_ ," ordered Burke. Admiral Elliot's task force had been on hand in case there was a situation. Now, without anything of note, a cruiser and two destroyers would be sent with the explorer and Burke's own ship. The rest of the vessels would continue their sector patrol before heading to the nearby deep space port.

* * *

 **Present Time**

 **Mass Effect Universe**

 **Shanxi**

"General, marines have encountered stiff resistance in a residential area south of Park Street, requesting clarification on ROE; they want to level the area ... General if the enemy pulls some of its frigates into atmosphere we're going to have to divert almost all our air assets from CAS in ... We've got good push in sectors 1-8 but 9-13 was much more concentrated than expected..."

The HQ had descended into organized chaos. General Williams was juggling multiple situation reports per minute while trying to use that information to make informed tactical decisions.

"Divert a company of Baskings to sector 11, we need to break through there. It's a direct route the the spaceport and the food storage nearby," ordered Williams.

Williams needed to capture as many aliens as possible in this offensive and to force the aliens to surrender or at least stalemate up in their ship. But none of that would matter if they couldn't first get food, and everyone starved to death. He'd been careful not to show this precarious position to the enemy. They'd just level every farm and warehouse on the planet to deny him the supplies. Causing thousand of civilians to die.

The initial attack had gone well. The first wave of marines had gotten a few minutes of surprise by crawling through utility pipes towards the enemy lines. Several minefields had caused disaster for the armored platoons attached to the infantry forces. But the fast alliance tanks cleared the explosives quickly and moved on, although losing many in the process.

Snipers were a tipping point, as they had been for the whole invasion. Combined with the inherent advantage of a defensive war, where you knew the land better than the enemy, the snipers were absolutely deadly. Furthermore, alliance force composition seemed to use more snipers than the enemy did; a huge advantage in the urban warfare.

"General! I've got Harper on the line, codes check out, he says the barriers over the enemy beachhead are offline!" Rushed over a radio operator.

"That tough SOB," Williams gave a low chuckle, "what's the closest asset in the area?"

"A flight of gunships are on CAS for the 1st Armored."

"Re-task them, those barriers could go back up anytime. And get Harper back here!" Ordered the General. He knew that his armor would take some serious casualties without the support, air power had been an integral part of their offensive plan. But, if he took out the beachhead and the rest of the aliens supplies with it; then he might be able to end the invasion.

* * *

"Overlord, Warpig Actual. What's the ETA of our air support?" Called out Commander Morris into the radio. The 1st and 2nd Batallions of the 1st Armored Brigade had pushed south out of Jinyang early in the morning. With the loss of the enemy command ship, and Alliance air defenses coming alive to shoot down recon planes, the hope was that the enemy would be slow on seeing them coming.

That was wishful thinking. The birds had definitely seen them, they just couldn't commit forces to counter the armored thrust with the offensive going on in Jinyang. The alien planes were being suppressed by their own, and no enemy ships had yet lined up for bombardment. The alien dreadnought had been the orbital bombardment ship, and the other ships were currently too busy scrambling around to perform the task.

The tanks had swung east to close onto the avian's flank and encountered a hastily developed defensive line. The first wave of air strikes had opened a hole that the fast Alliance tanks could easily exploit, pushing deep into the enemy lines. This was territory the aliens had only held for a few days, there were not significant defenses in place.

The plan at this point was to close a pocket onto the army sieging Jinyang. These could be used as a bargaining chip to stall fighting. Once that objective was complete, the alien reserves could be mopped up. Unfortunately, one alien armored reserve had been fairly close to the Alliance tanks. They were right between them and their objective of closing a pocket.

"Warpig this is Overlord. Be advised, all assets in your AO have been reassigned to a target of opportunity. ETA on retasking is 11 mikes."

This declaration brought several cusses out of the tank crew. Air support had been critical in the earlier stages of the fighting, now they would have to rely solely on a single battery of artillery for the entire division.

Unfortunately for Morris, his company was the tip of the spear into enemy territory. Already they had lost two tanks and three Infantry Fighting Vehicles. But now, without air support, he expected much worse casualties.

Morris looked out through the array of sights and sensors allowing him to see outside his tank. A glimmer on his IR scope was all that alerted him to danger.

"Reverse! Reverse! We're right on top of them!" Screamed out the tank commander. The alien armor was dug in at a reverse slope position, allowing them to shoot at tanks just as they peaked over a hill. Except the tanks were facing the wrong way! They must not have been told about the assault coming from their flank, the aliens disrupted command structure not yet getting orders to this unit.

Morris' driver struggled to maneuver the M32 Basking tank so that it's gun could depress onto the enemy. One of the others in Morris' platoon of 4 tanks got to the first shot, the mass accelerator delivering a point blank shot to the back of the enemy turret.

The kinetic barriers weren't as strong on the top or back of the tank, so the penetrator went straight through the vehicle. The shot must've gotten the tank in one of the small mass effect cores used to hover the tank, as its turret violently imploded like a tin can under pressure.

The enemy was quick to react, disciplined as they always were. The hover tanks popped straight up out of their dug-in emplacements and maneuvered to bring their thick frontal armor to bear.

But it was too late. The close engagement denied the aliens the advantage of their powerful guns, powerful armor, powerful shields, and the alliance tanks had a clear shot at the weak spots of the enemy. Considering the fast firing speed of alliance tanks, multiple alien vehicles were destroyed before they could even turn around. By then it was over.

"Sledgehammer, Warpig Actual. Thirty plus armored vehicles destroyed at grid reference Easting 74 Northing 92, continuing towards phase line gateway," reported Morris to his commanders, rather redundantly considering the same information was being sent over the battlefield network.

Morris could only hope the rest of the battle would go so well.

* * *

 **Into the Night**

Burke had been treated to a complete view of the away team infiltrating the alien beachhead. The 3D holographic projection was highly detailed, and he watched his team drop into the building and quickly both secure the artifact and devastate the base defenses.

Burke also observed the two humans escaping from their prison cells. The powerful sensors of the ship providing perfect details on their every movement.

A frown marred his face as he watched one of the humans follow directly in the path of his away team. The human then stopped exactly where the device had been taken into the jumper.

"Minerva?"

"Pulling up sensor logs now, Captain." The virtual human always seemed to know what was on his mind. "The artifact was broadcasting to him in ultra-wideband and low intensity at a randomly shifting pattern, it was nearly indecipherable from the background."

"Try and put this together for me," grunted the Captain. What connection did this human have with the artifact? Just from a glance you could tell the tech didn't fit this human society. In fact, it almost looked like a piece of art you might find on a Lantean city ship.

"The CIC just got it. He's infected with the nanotechnology from the device, they were receiving the transmissions and directing him," informed Minerva. "Searching for more n- there! Some more in one of the aliens in the base. A massive amount in a dead human, the away team already took care of that, making up a significant amount of his total mass."

"So, not only does this device use EM fields for neural manipulation. But it also infects people with nanites?" Burke couldn't believe it. He wasn't very concerned by the weapon itself, UTS security systems could sniff out the nanites and contaminated brainwaves in seconds, the standard checkup when Burke sat down in his Captain's chair would do just that. And the UTS had encountered dozens of races experimenting and using various mind control and nano technologies, much more advanced ones.

Rather, Burke was concerned because the device was so improperly handled. What race just left this sort of technology laying around? What race would allow such a danger to possible harm a more primitive civilization like the humans below? More concerning was the possibility that this artifact was an attack on the human below. But why would such an obviously more advanced species go about an attack in such a subtle way as the artifact?

The Alterrans didn't make a habit of leaving their technology around, and the Lanteans tried to lock away the most dangerous items in Atlantis before losing their war. The few exception were all locked under DNA sensors. Burke just couldn't see something like this being accidentally left on the planet below.

"Minerva? What's the possibility that the device was beneficial for its makers, but just not attuned for other physiologies and thus harmful?"

"Minimal. For the device's EM radiation to affect human brains the way it does, it would need to be designed this way. And some of the things the nanites did to the dead human is clearly for creating a sort of soldier. Brain function manipulated for compliance, bones and muscles strengthened, redundant biology to take damage," listed off the Intelligence.

"The two infected, do we need to take action?" Burke didn't just want to leave some rouge, possibly hostile, nanites running around.

"Without contact with the artifact they've gone into dormancy. Performing simply healing and bone, muscle, and nerve improvement. But there aren't nearly as many in the two infected as the dead human, from what I can see there are not nearly enough to affect their brains. And I'm seeing minor immunological responses that should remove the nanites after some time; assuming they're not re-exposed to the artifact."

"Leave them then," decided Burke, "perhaps the humans might even discover the nanites and get some good out of it."

"But the alien?" Prompted Minerva.

This left Burke in a quandary. He wasn't xenophobic, the Terrans interacted with many species. The problem was that this race had waged a war of conquest on another species with no justification. In addition, their lack of regard for civilians gave him much pause.

Burke was still angry about the dropping of debris and bombardment on the capital city on the planet below. While the aliens hadn't dropped any more, and he would stop them if they did, they had still killed thousands when the _Into the Night_ arrived in system.

The United Terran State wasn't one to jump to intervene in every conflict they saw. This was for a variety of reasons. You don't want to affect a developing culture. You don't want civilizations to become dependent on your help, expecting help that you might not always be able to give. And you don't want to gain resentment for sticking your nose where it didn't belong. And the biggest reason, UTS public opinion was against fighting wars all the time.

In practicality, the UTS couldn't be everywhere. Well actually, Burke thought, if the UTS increased ship production and manned them remotely they probably could. But that wasn't the point; it would be a massive overreach to try and police the entire universe.

There were exceptions, of course. Races committing blatant war crimes or pointless aggression could receive covert attention from stealth ships like the _Into the Night_. This was a direct result of UTS experience with the Goa'uld and Wraith. The UTS couldn't just sit by while one species imposed themselves on another.

Though, if there was a war resulting out of political, territorial, or ideological disputes; then the UTS tried to stay out of the way. Obviously though, ideologies calling for genocide were another matter.

But from experience, the UTS found many interstellar wars were just like Earth wars. Both side had valid grievances with the other and picking the bad guys and good guys wasn't as easy as looking at who started it. These situations came from long series of events that weren't easy to pick apart. So the UTS often had to stick with trying to negotiate treaties.

You could, in theory, bring in pacification fleets and disable all military equipment. The UTS was more than capable of doing this, using sensors and beaming to remove any arms from entire solar systems. You can't have an insurrection when the UTS knows the exact location of every bullet on the planet. But this only worked when there was a majority wanting peace. Otherwise, as soon as you try to pull out and allow a local government to take over a war of oppression is run by the government out of un-resolved conflicts of old.

However, when you find a race that shoots first off of first contact, that is an entirely separate matter. The UTS is perfectly happy maintaining blockades around the last Wraith and Goa'uld worlds, which contain no space technologies or the resources to make them.

So, when the _Into the Night_ confirmed these aliens had attacked the human world without provocation and without even having a first contact; high command was all for discrete aid.

And now, Burke didn't want these aliens to have a chance of looking at their nanite filled soldier. Maybe in the distant future they would reverse engineering more of them for attacking other species.

"It looks like we won't have to make a choice," said Minerva. Burke looked at his battle space. A flight of gunships was shown outlined in red, a dotted line appearing in the constructed camera shot showing their trajectory to the enemy beachhead. The same location that the alien infected with nanites was at.

"CIC intercepted the comms from those escaped POWs. They're not gonna leave anything standing," Minerva informed him. The gunships approached low over the forest. The defense lasers did not have any line of sight, blocked by trees and by their own buildings.

The gunships first unleashed missiles to knock out the lasers, then came closer to strafe the area. After the explosions tore apart the lasers, the gunships flew over using their mass accelerators to destroy everything in sight. The destruction caused was memorizing. The mass accelerators didn't cause big explosions, just turned the entire area into rubble and debris. A building being hit with a few rounds would just shatter into pieces from the kinetic force.

The alien base became a graveyard. A field of rubble and craters piled with bodies. Fires began to spread, sparked from broken electrical systems. Very shortly after explosion ripped through the area, the stockpile of weapons catching fire.

The scene was devastating, a testament to what intelligent beings could do to each other. _Would_ do to each other. It was beautiful. Mesmerizing. Terrible.

* * *

 **Codex**

Historians studying the siege of Jinyang, and especially William's Offensive, will note the destruction of Turian tanks at the Battle of 74 Easting as a major turning point in the invasion. The Turian battalion had been setup as a lynchpin in any tactical withdraws from Jinyang into a defensive line a couple dozen miles outside the city. With the emplacements removed, any chance at an easy withdraw had been destroyed.

The battle took place right after mercenary Jack Harper's escaped from the Turian beachhead and temporary HQ, which was in use after the loss of power on the invading dreadnought. The escape coincided with a devastating cyber attack on the base's computers, of which the alliance remains silent on to this day.

Whatever the case, the HQ was out of action for several hours and unable to relay battlefield information to Turian troops. This led not only to one sided Battle of 74 Easting, where the Turian Battalions was not informed of the flanking human tanks, but a general lack of coordination and information throughout the theater.

This was a remarkable victory for a battalion that went on to take heavy casualties closing the West Jinyang pocket on the Turian invasion force. At the end of it all Lt Colonel Morris drove out with little under half his original fighting force. The Alliance tanks were not used to being so thoroughly vulnerable to enemy fire. The Basking tanks taking considerably more casualties than their Turian counterparts was the main reason for why the Alliance purchased not only the M35 Mako, but also the American M36 Megalodon heavy tank post defense of Shanxi.

 **Edited March 15**


	4. Chapter 4

**Shanxi Relay**

"Admiral, jump complete. Navigation switching to Shanxi Barycentric Celestial Reference. Drift is adequate and ships are in formation," reported the Flight Lieutenant.

The Second Alliance Fleet scrambled together as soon as the distress call from Shanxi had been received. Unfortunately, the Alliance had been at peace for a long time; its fleets were not ready for immediate quick reaction attacks. Crew had to be assembled from leave while arms and ammunition were scrounged up from various warehouses and holding facilities. Word of hostile contact had come a complete surprise, after decades of exploring the relay network no aliens had been encountered. The only reason the Alliance still had a military was the fact that the relays stood as proof of other intelligent life in the galaxy.

"Very good, link us into whatever network is left in-system and prep the FTL for jump into Shanxi orbit," ordered Admiral Drescher. "And find me the enemy." The last order came out nearly as a snarl.

"Aye, Ma'am. Faint contacts in orbit of Shanxi, focusing sensors now!"

The Alliance Second Fleet was a 34 ship composition. Comprised of 1 dreadnought, 2 carriers, 7 cruisers, and 24 frigates it was a force to be reckoned with. Admiral Kastanie Drescher was currently aboard the SSV _Everest_ , a class leading dreadnought that was serving as the command ship for the Second Fleet. The only ships that didn't jump with the fleet were the two carriers, they stayed behind and waiting for the main body to take account of the situation.

"Admiral! I have got a clear picture!" Yelled out a communications officer.

"Get me a situation report." Drescher stood up from her Captain's chair and stalked behind her subordinates.

"About twenty possible cruiser and frigate analogs, confirmed one dreadnought contact. They're in a standard siege orbit," A nervous sensor operative reported to his superior. "We outnumber their combat vessels by a third Admiral! It's not a full combat fleet, maybe just an invasion force!"

"Flash message the carriers _not_ to jump in, no reason to show our ace," decided Drescher.

"Designate the enemy dreadnought as our priority target, we're going to knock it out from the start," ordered the Admiral. "Frigate Wolfpacks 1 and 2 will go with OPLAN Trident, 3 and 4 will stay in defensive position delta over the cruisers. Have us leading point. Engage."

Drescher was quick to pounce on the enemy. Heat, light, and EM radiation traveled very fast, but the Relay was many light hours from Shanxi, meaning the alien ships wouldn't have yet received indication of their presence. The windows of the ship glowed red as the FTL activated and shifted spectrums of light. Traveling around 12 light years per day, it was nearly instantaneous to the alien fleet.

The Second Fleet appeared to the side of the enemy fleet, so they could fire without risking stay rounds hitting the planet below. The aliens frantically detected their entrance and began maneuvering for firing solutions, but they couldn't leave orbit as the aliens had troops on the ground. To make matters worse for the aliens, it seemed their dreadnought's engines were completely inoperable. Damage was obvious on the ship, a trough plowed down one side of the vessel. Small repair shuttles desperately detached from the hull of the dreadnought and retreated back to their cruisers.

The _Everest_ shook as a 20-kilogram slug was ejected out of it's main gun into the enemy dreadnought. The alien ship had to just sit their and take its punishment, its secondary engines the only working thrust struggling to maneuvering away from the Alliance capital ship. Flashed of orange surrounded the bird like ship as mass effect barriers slapped aside the rounds.

"Disruptor launch detected! Wolfpacks 3 and 4 on intercept!" informed another bridge crewman.

"Answer with our own! Double salvos on enemy cruisers," viscously responded the Admiral.

The outnumbered Turian ships couldn't send enough torpedos to get through the GARDIAN defenses on the Alliance frigates that were screening the rest of the Alliance fleet. The more numerous Alliance ships, though, had no such problem. Blue streaks of light raced across the void, occasional lasers causing them to prematurely explode, but a good amount made it to the avian ships and easily stripped down barriers.

"Enemy cruiser making to shield the dreadnought!"

"Punch right through it!"

The bridge of the _Everest_ felt slight rumbles as its own barriers began to be the target of enemy ships. But without the firepower of the enemy dreadnought, the Alliance ship wasn't going to be taken down any time soon. Soon enough, the _Everest_ was once more punishing the alien's capital ship with its main cannon.

"Enemy dreadnought barriers are falling, looks like it was on secondary power and that just went down."

"Stop firing and prep boarding parties! I want that ship," ordered Drescher, eyeing the daunting vessel that was even bigger than her own. The wide sweeping wings gave it an appearance of size even bigger than its already massive length.

"Wolfpack 1 is reporting depletion of torpedos!"

"Rotate them with Wolfpack 4! Send 3 with a cruiser group to close off the hole at coordinates 21 by 13 by 8!"

Admiral Drescher was trying her hardest to keep her forces aligned with their frontal armor taking the most hits. The Alliance ships were like tanks in that their frontal armor was sloped to be give more effective thickness. Of course, once shields were down this amor would only be able to take a few hits before the high velocity accelerator rounds tore straight through.

"Enemy frigates are attempting to clear a path!"

"Target them with our main gun!" Ordered Drescher. If the enemy dreadnought hadn't been damaged, the aliens may have been able to fight to a stalemate. But since that ship was knocked out, the _Everest_ had free reign to terrorize the enemy. Without another ship to occupy it, the _Everest_ was tearing through the alien fleet. A few shots was all it took for the main gun of a dreadnought to destroy an enemy cruiser, even less for a frigate.

The firepower of a dreadnought was exponentially more than the next highest class of ship. The power available for the dreadnought to allocate to the mass accelerator was much more proportionally to its size than a cruiser or frigate. This resulted in a massive jump in capability going from cruiser to dreadnought size. With the alien dreadnought disabled, the Alliance had an unprecedented advantage in the battle from their own dreadnought.

"Split pack 1, send them above and below. Pin them in," coordinated Admiral Drescher.

The Alliance had long theorized that space combat would be short and inconclusive. The lesser opponent often disengaging and fleeing. Often a battle would be long ranged artillery duels that accomplished nothing but delaying an actual battle. On the other side of space combat were the brutal knife fights; short intense minutes of maneuvering that left gutted ships littering space. This type of fighting occurred when one side had to defend a static interest, and couldn't retreat without giving up whatever they were trying to defend. Shanxi was such a case, as the Turians had troops on the ground and thus wouldn't hasten to retreat.

"Two frigates just went to FTL, they're bugging out!" shouted out the sensor officer. "One cruisers and nine frigates left, they're covering that dreadnought!"

It wasn't possible to stop a retreating force in FTL. There were no sensors to track them or weapons to harm them. Furthermore, even the closest space battles occur at such distances that maneuvering a ship to block an FTL path was nearly impossible.

"Break them up, bring our secondaries into line," ordered Drescher. The Everest class ship had 53 mass accelerators lining each side of the ship for a total of 106. Only the planned _Kilimanjaro_ -Class, with 156 total broadsides, would have more.

As the _Everest_ slid up against the enemy cruisers, the sides of the ship lit up in a chorus of lights. The mass accelerators were firing so fast that by the time the last had fired the 1st was reloaded and firing again. The fast rounds looked as if a beam of light had for a few second been spread between the two ships. The machine gun like explosion of rounds had ripped apart a cruiser and frigate. The metal of the once predatory ships had been twisted and crumpled under the extreme force of the penetrators.

"Barrier stress on sections 82 through 115!" The _Everest_ was one tough nut, but it could only take so much damage before it began to crack.

"Roll us around, present the belly and keep the fresh sections facing those frigates!" Drescher was in her zone, easily managing all the information running through the bridge and keeping her ship and fleet one step ahead. The remaining alliance ships quickly had the remaining alien frigates cornered, the fire controls on the alliance ships making sure they didn't hit one another.

"Report!" Called out Admiral Drescher.

"Three frigates lost with all hands from Wolfpack 1 and 2, three total more with partial demcompression in all packs. Cruisers _Dallas_ and _Chennai_ are reporting minor barrier issues, _Dallas_ with a major hole in its GARDIAN network, structural damage to the _Pula_ has disabled its main weapon," answered one officer.

"The Marines are away, contact with enemy dreadnought in minus three," informed Drescher's XO.

* * *

 **Alien Dreadnought**

The Alliance had gone through many different experimental boarding craft programs. A few ideas involved leach like vessels that would make their own opening with drills or lasers. One proposal involved dropping marines onto the surface of the ship wearing magnetic boots and armed with explosives to blow open an entrance.

While some of the ideas showed much promise, and the surprise factors would make ship capture much easier, bureaucracy had shut them down. In the end, a Kodiak variant was produced that would have a special breaching arm. It had a collar like opening that would clamp itself around bulkheads and breach. Remaining airtight wasn't necessary, as the marines had a short supply of recirculated and scrubbed air from their special armor.

The boarding Marines were also provided explosives if they needed to force the issue, although this risked damage to the ship they were trying to take. The front of the Kodiak had also been retrofitted with thick armor to protect the boarding craft from the defensive fire of enemy ships. This creating a distinctive bulge on the front of the variant.

"The reactor is offline, but could come back on at any moment! Our job is to secure it before that the aliens can get it back online and attempt any scuttling operations!" Instructed the Sergeant leading the squad. While the intel officers of the Second Fleet doubted the ship had a designed self destruct, such things were science fiction, any attempt at sabotage needed to be stopped.

" _One Minute_!" Yelled the pilot over the intercom.

"Ready 10! Ready 11! Ready 12! ... ," The marines of the first assault team began to sound off their status as the shuttle prepared to attach to the enemy vessel. A great thump and rumbled filled the Kodiak as the pilot rubbed the craft up against the enemy dreadnought. A sucking sound filled the shuttle as the collar attached itself to the hull of the dreadnought. The Kodiak depressurized and eventually the cargo door slid away to reveal the grey hull of the dreadnought.

A small circle shaped door was directly in the middle of the hull. It jutted out slightly and was covered in knobs and handles for a docking collar to attach too. Small holes indicated where various hoses would attach to exchange gases or even connect data lines. The marines decided to bypass all of that.

The soldiers carefully stood out of the way as the Sergeant hit the breaching controls. A large arm disentangled itself from the ceiling of the Kodiak and, after a moment of hesitation, started cutting into the door of the dreadnought. After a minute of cutting the mechanical arm shed the cutting tool for a ram head. The hydraulic arm then slammed the ram into the bulkhead. After only three more attempt the ram succeeded in forcing through the bulkhead.

Arc grenades were the first thing thrown into the alien ship. Normal frags were to dangerous to use on a ship, lest they blow the whole section apart. These did nothing, however, to stop the hail of bullets awaiting the marines. The few seconds of safety provided by barriers of the marine armor allowed the boarding party to escape the bottleneck and expand into the hallway.

The ship had high ceilings to accommodate the large avian aliens. The interior was bathed in a red emergency light, a backup as the reactor was offline. The gravity was not on either, but that could have just been a heat saving method used during combat. The marines, though, instinctively activated their magnetic boots and attempted to push on the defenders.

The marines rushed out of their Kodiak and exchanged one death zone for another. The Kodiak had breached into a hallway parallel to the hull with defenders poking their weapons around bulkheads both to the left and right. One enterprising marine grabbed the cut-out rectangle hull piece from where it had been thrown and used it as a makeshift riot-shield.

The alien security teams were at a disadvantage. The dreadnought was a combat ship, not a troop transport. Most personnel were crew and not security, and there were only so many armories for the crew to arm themselves. Furthermore, the damage done to the vessel earlier meant that many people had been evacuated off ship while repairs were underway. With the reactor offline, the automated turrets and defensive barriers that were key to preventing boarding actions were disabled. This created a situation where the aliens were undermanned, outnumbered in soldier count, and their main defenses were useless.

" _This is team 3! We're can push out of our Kodiak, requesting support!"_

That didn't mean the Alliance had an easy time going about it. The aliens were disciplined, an invaluable quality for the hard-nosed fighting that ship boarding action bogged down into. The alien weapons were also superior to the Alliance's. The M-8 Avenger was the most common alliance weapon. The assault rifle was tough, reliable, easy to use, and cheap. While a deadly weapon and good at piercing shields and armor, the rifle had range issues. Luckily the marines didn't need range inside a ship.

In comparison, the aliens wielded similarly reliable and rugged weapons. Except the aliens rifles packed much more punch and could go longer before starting to over heat. The added punch of the alien weapons was especially deadly in close quarters, stripping marine barriers away in short order.

" _Team 2 here. We're reached some kind of auxiliary control center, but it looks completely locked out!"_

The alien defenders, though, were not suited out in full heavy armor. Unlike the groundside soldiers, these security forces' barriers were only slightly (instead of exceptionally) better than alliance barriers and the armor wasn't so protective. This was a major boon for the alliance marines, if the aliens were outfitted in the same equipment as the soldiers on Shanxi; the boarding action would result in many more funerals.

Team one continued their assault towards the reactor room. The location of said room wasn't known to the Second Fleet, but if the ship was anything like the _Everest_ then the marines were heading in its general direction.

After blowing their way through several closed bulkheads, and losing a few marines along the way, Team 1 came upon what was undoubtably the core room. The thick blast door were unmistakable, its distinct design to keep a core leak from contaminating the rest of the shit.

" _Team 1 at objective alpha!_ " Called the Sergeant leading the squad.

The large containment ball in the middle of the giant cavernous room was unmistakably the eezo core. Several smaller enclosures off to the side, with pipes running to the core, must have been the fusion reactors that supplied charge to the mass manipulating devise. The larger coils probably brought power from the farther anti-matter engines.

" _Doesn't seem to be anyone here..."_ muttered out one of the marines.

 _"Keep it quiet!"_ snapped the Sergeant, who tightened his hands around his weapon. He didn't stand a chance when a glowing blue ball ripped him apart where he stood. In a single second the veteran marine leader had been reduced into dozens of pieces.

" _Contact!"_ yelled out one of the older veteran marines, his experience allowing him to sight the enemy trying to sneak back behind a piece of machinery. A spray of bullets ran towards the alien and large explosions of steam erupted from ruptured pipes.

" _Shit, did you see that?"_ asked another marine over the radio, " _That wasn't any barrier like I've ever seen before!"_

" _Shut it! J_ _ust keep your hands on your... ahhhhhh!"_ That time the marine managed to slightly sidestep the whirlpool of blue, only being knocked to the side. The marine team adapted at that point and spread out to protect themselves from whatever weapon was attacking them.

" _This is Team 1 in the reactor room! We need immediate assistance! Unknown hostile, extremely dangerous!"_ The Corporal that was second in command finally made a smart decision and called in back up.

" _Daniels, Peter, Jackson! Setup on the left side of the containment core! Everyone else, we'll flush this bastard out from the right. Whatever this is, they wouldn't be hiding about if they could take some fire! Move it!"_ The Corporal took command and put together the hastily created plan.

" _Ohh Rah_!" The marines called out their battle cry and raced into the valley of death. The plan wasn't a bad one, but marines hadn't ever faced an enemy quite like this one. When the Alliance forces tried to implement an attack, so did the biotic Turian.

The Turian had been stagnant in his military career, the Hierarchy not receptive to biotics in their military. He had been look over for promotions many times and when dangerous repairs needed done to the leaking eezo core of the dreadnought; he had been chosen.

Regardless, just because other Turians didn't respect his abilities didn't mean that his biotic warps any less deadly to the alliance marines. A series of Throws and Shockwaves instantly forced back the marines advancing around the right. Moving to the left side of the room, the Turian raised a barrier to halt the bullets fired by the other three marines. A glowing ball of energy in the hand of the alien signified incoming doom for the alliance marines.

" _Engaging!"_ A light machine gun exploded into life. The gun was so powerful that the marines could feel each shot vibrating through the floor. The hail of accelerator rounds forced the biotic Turian to release his attempt at a singularity and put all his effort into maintaining his barrier. Two more guns joined in on the assault, sub machine guns that seemed to release an unimaginable number of rounds per second.

The marines, meanwhile, renewed their assault and added their own fire to that of their rescuers. The overwhelming bombardment felled the glowing mass effect barrier. The body of the Turian engineer quickly became riddled with holes, as the only thing he had on was a hazmat work suit to keep away eezo contamination.

The marines then turned to see their saviors. A massive man in matte black armor carried a light machine gun. The bright red crest of the System Alliance Special Operations Command stood out on his breast, a bird in a shield. The two other operatives, a man and a woman, were smaller and more lithe than the hulking mass carrying the machine gun. They similarly had matte black special forces armor with red SASOC emblems.

" _Thanks for the assist,"_ one of the marines said over his comms. He started scanning the room for any other threats, trying to stop gaping at the intimidating special forces.

" _Yeah, that was FUBAR,"_ joked another marine, trying to cover up the death of their comrade with humor.

" _You're welcome_ ," responded the woman. Her voice carried a soothing melody, something eerily out of place in the warzone they stood in. It was like a shiver going down your back.

" _Team 4 needs assistance pushing towards the bridge. We'll finish up here_ ," said the hulking man with the light machine gun, his gravel filed voice indicating the suggestion was actually an order.

The other operative, the small man wielding the sub machine gun, stalked over to the dead Turian. He'd already began stripping the alien of his suit.

" _Uhh... Yes, Sir_ ," stammered out the marine Corporal. He was now the highest ranking officer in the marine squad. Since the start of the boarding, the three fire teams of twelve men had been whittled down to eight. As the marines left the core room, the Corporal gave one more glimpse back. The special forces had already stuffed the alien into a body bag and were dragging it away.


	5. Chapter 5

AN:

Be advised: I moved back the discovery date of the mars archives. This was simply to make the canon System Alliance fleet and colony numbers look more realistic, nothing else was changed. Simply, cannon system alliance is unrealist/wanked with only 8 years between mars archives and first contact (of course this goes AU from first contact onward).

* * *

 **System Alliance Space**

TV channels all across the Alliance suddenly cut from their shows to emergency news broadcasts. Online entertainment providers like Netflix and Hulu displayed pop-ups on their costumers' screens, allowing them to tune in. Phones and computers simultaneously began buzzing and ringing as notifications streamed in over the internet.

"A new development on the Shanxi Communication Blackout has just come in; the Parliament has entered into an emergency closed session just behind me at Arcturus. If you look in the top right corner of your screen, you'll see playback of the arrival of nearly every high ranking Alliance military personal just minutes ago," began the new reported. "We've been receiving reports of massive troop mobilization across the Alliance. A few videos were just sent in, I'm seeing this for the first time too."

As the reporter talked, several videos took over the new broadcast. Hand held recordings showed men and women in both civilian and military uniforms literally pouring through the entrance of a military base. Shuttles streamed into the sky towards low flying ships above.

"This was just outside Fort Independence Spaceport on Earth, non-stop shuttle flights have been taking personnel to the Fourth Fleet since late last night," the reporter spoke over the video.

The video suddenly changed to a view of Arcturus space station. The camera, which seemed to be on a news ship, zoomed onto a single ship from the fleet surrounding the station. It became clear that the ship was a carrier, as the sloping side armor was actually split into two overlapping pieces. The hangers were protected between these the two slabs of armor.

Suddenly, many small craft began exiting from this gap between the two sloping pieces of metal. A literal swarm began to form as the fighter just kept coming from within the massive craft.

"These remarkable images are from the Third Fleet just outside Arcturus. We've identified this ship as the SSV _Higgs_ , a _Churchill_ -Class carrier built just five years ago," told the reporter. "As we've been covering for the past month, there has been an ongoing communications blackout from the distant colony of Shanxi. The Second Fleet only last night was sent through the the colony's relay. Many are theorists are proclaiming this may be the start of an insurrection."

Suddenly, the video cut from its loop of the SSV _Higgs_ back to the outside of the Parliament building. The camera was struggling to follow behind the reporter, all around other news stations were similarly rushing towards the doors of the building. A previously locked door was now wide open for the media to enter. Capitol police was seen directing the reporters through the labyrinth of hallways towards a press box overlooking the main house of parliament.

"It looks to be a joint parliament meeting, we can see the Prime Minister has already been called up by the speaker and is about give an address," narrated the reporter. Within seconds the roar of the new crews had turned into a few hushed whispers as the Prime Minister called for silence.

"In 2069, Armstrong Outpost was established on Luna. In 2069, humanity stepped out of its cradle. We walked among the stars, no longer squabbling over territory or resources; for the galaxy promised infinite prosperity! We had reached peace eternal. In the years to come we spread our wings across our home system, we learned to harness the power of stars... and so much more. Then in 2118 everything changed; we were not alone. From the mars archives our technology advanced centuries! Medicines and technologies gave our citizens a life of luxury never before experienced. Peace was eternal," began the Prime Minister. With steel eyes he scanned the room, his steady and deep voice having entrapped the audience.

"Last month, July 6th of 2157: a day where eternity was shattered. For our peace was not endless; war, war once again has crossed our path. A series of distress calls were received from Shanxi," spoke the Prime Minister. "The Second Fleet was scrambled to a state of battle readiness and fourteen hours ago entered the Shanxi system. Despite not knowing what they may face, the brave men and women rushed to the aid of their fellow citizens. Led by Admiral Drescher, the fleet was witness to a vicious siege of the peaceful colony. After a short but intense battle, the Second Fleet defeated the enemy invasion force with little casualties; allowing the escape of only two small frigates."

"The unknown force had abruptly and viciously engaged the 23rd scout flotilla during a routine activation of a relay. Although beaten back, the enemy was soon to return. The valiant militia led by General Williams not only defended the capital city of Jinyang but organized a brilliant counter-attack which encircled the enemy landing forces."

"We are at war. We are at war with an ALIEN race that prefers to shot first and ask questions later. Yes, we are at war with another sapient species. A possibility we have considered but hoped against since the Prothean ruins were first uncovered. We are at war with a race we have no idea the capabilities, the number, nor the location. We are at war with something many didn't believe we'd ever encounter, intelligent life. Yet do not cower; the System Alliance has hoped for peace, but we are prepared to fight. And make no doubt, we shall fight till our dying breath. For this enemy has proved through indiscriminate orbital bombardment of civilians that they will take naught but our extinction! There will be no surrender!"

The Prime Minister began gradually raising his voice in his speech.

"No matter the time nor effort it takes to overcome this aggression. No matter the resources nor wealth that must be used in protection. No matter the sacrifices we must face, I believe I speak the will of this parliament and this people when I say that this race and all other races will be shown that humanity will not lay down. We will not bow in the face of barbarism and brutality. We will not lay down without a fight, we will not go quietly into the night!"

Now the Prime Minister had dropped to barely a low murmur.

"The aggressors knock on our door. We have known that we were not alone in the stars. But if we must be alone in the stars to have eternal peace, than so be it. With confidence in our armed forces, we will gain victory over our foes. It is with this I declare that this body has voted since the dastardly and unprovoked attacks on July 6th of 2157, the System Alliance has been at a state of war with these savages."

* * *

 **Shanxi System**

"Admiral, are you sure this is the wisest course of action?" Asked the Minister of Defense, the Prime Minister also listening in. An FTL comm buoy had been dropped in the Shanxi system as soon as the Second Fleet had forced out the enemy. Nearly immediately, Drescher had been in contact with her civilian leaders. The comms buoy sent the information over the relay nearly instantaneous. Therefore, as long as the two parties weren't too far from their buoys to cause time delays, they could have nearly really time talks.

"It's clear from General Williams' report that the enemy wasn't prepared for the number of single manned craft we utilize in combat. They didn't even bring a carrier with them for a ground invasion! I didn't display my carrier attachment in this counter-attack, so I can use them in a surprise thrust through the relay. It would overwhelm whatever is on the other side," repeated Admiral Drescher. "Furthemore, it is strategically important to establish a forward operation base outside our own territory. We need to create a buffer zone between Shanxi and these aliens."

"And what time period could such an attack be made?"

"Ideally a few weeks of repair for many of my ships, months for the most damaged ones. But I've made the decision that we will leave behind the most damaged ships here at Shanxi, and press forward with whatever is combat able. We must press the advantaged before the enemy brings another fleet to bear."

"Indeed. Then proceed, but no further than the next system. The next fleet is still days away."

"Yes, Sir. I understand," Drescher saluted her superior. She quickly moved to give orders to her subordinates. She had already prepared the fleet to move out, she had only needed orders from above. Her entire force, minus the combat ineffective ships, had arranged themselves around the recently activated relay. The relay, deactivated before the aliens used it to invade, was one of two in the system. The other led back into Alliance Space, where the second fleet had come from.

The Alliance was already rushing for ideas to fortify the relay. Mines were being constructed out of disruptor torpedoes. Plans were being drawn up for Dreadnought sized cannons to be arranged around the relay in defensive space stations. Some were even calling for plans to be made for the destruction of the relay. Drescher believed the best defense was to go on offense.

She walked to the bridge of the _Everest_ , many sailors giving her salutes as she passed by. The command space was already a buzz of activity as the officers prepared for the second battle in only a few short hours. A count down clock was in the corner of the bridge screen, showing when they would jump.

"Status?" She called out to her XO.

"The fleet is ready to jump. There was a slight malfunction on the primary LIDAR, it appears to be battle damaged, but we've switched to secondary," reported the Executive Officer.

The last few minutes of waiting were a nerve wracking affair. For all the fleet knew, they could be jumping into a fortress. They could all die from a massive mine field around the relay instantly upon arrival. They just didn't know.

When they arrived in the system they immediately started a battle. A small picket force of frigates were instantly crushed by the overwhelming firepower of the Alliance cruisers and Dreadnoughts. Nevertheless, the small rearguard served their purpose; an alien corvette managing to speed away at FTL. The technicians aboard the Alliance fleet frantically worked to create a navigation system for the new system, so the fleet could accurately communicate plans and movements.

"Thermal and electronic signatures from deeper within the system! About 25 AU away!" Detecting fleets in system was relatively easy. The heat given off by ships in the vacuum was a giant indicator. Communications between ships could be picked up from far away, being the only sources of EM in the system. RADAR was much slower, having to hit the target and return, and also had a significant drop off in , just focussing on the heat could tell you the class of ship. Dreadnoughts were like a floodlight compared to the flashlight of a frigate.

"Three dreadnought analogues! Accompanying cruisers and frigate, heavy on the cruisers."

Drescher looked at the sensors readings. They were floating around another relay orbiting a planet deeper in the system. They had just arrived. It seemed she had missed the window to plant an ambush within the system.

One of the key pieces to this battle would be if the enemy had carriers. If they did... then Drescher wouldn't be going back to Shanxi. The problem was that heat signatures were nearly identically for dreadnoughts and carriers, and RADAR would take too long and wasn't accurate enough at such distance.

Drescher thought about her options. The enemy signatures appeared to be in a rather defensive grouping, so even with the element of surprise (which see now didn't have thanks to the alien corvette) she would still have a battle on her hands. They outnumbered her, meaning a she would have to even the odds. She'd have to rely on her carrier group. She sent a message back through the relay for the two vessel to proceed into the system.

With a quick order she had her forces scramble into a battle formation and prepare to FTL to the enemy fleet. She ordered the carriers to angle their main hangar away from the enemy, and prepare to launch anti-ship sorties. She then ordered the fleet to FTL to the enemy.

Within seconds of arriving, the enemy had scrambled to face the vector of the arriving Alliance fleet. There was some advantage to the Alliance, as even with a few minutes notice the enemy would still be scrambling their sailors to battle positions. In their current formation not all ships were facing the optimal way to bring about GARDIAN lasers on an approaching group of fighters. However, the enemy was ready for a battle. They were, after all, only a single relay away from Shanxi.

Some of the alien frigates and cruisers quickly formed into packs and swam towards the Alliance fleet. A huddle of cruisers and frigates stayed behind and protected the three dreadnoughts, who began to orient for long range fire. It was all according to Drescher's plan.

The Alliance carriers began to disgorge hundreds of fighters armed with disruptor tipped missiles. These fighters stayed behind the hulking shape of the carriers, hiding them from the enemy. Finally, upon Drescher's orders, they swarmed.

The enemy dreadnoughts had lost a significant amount of anti-air capability when the majority of the frigates and cruisers formed into their wolf packs. They didn't know the Alliance carriers were anything but more dreadnoughts. Fighters have great acceleration, allowing them to speed up and around the approaching packs of alien frigates and cruisers. Said packs had massive inertia, meaning they couldn't easily stop and return to their dreadnoughts. Mass Effect cores helped with this, but nothing to the extent of allowing the thousands of tons of metal to turn on a dime.

It was a near massacre when the fighter swarm approached the alien dreadnoughts and their small number of escorts. They had GARDIAN systems, but these were point defense weapons aimed at disruptor torpedoes. They worked great against these missiles that had lots of fuel, not as well against the more heavily armored fighters with forward ablative armor. Furthermore, fighters had room for ECM equipment. Several hundred of these ECM sets approaching at close range meant reduced targeting ability.

The fighters carried smaller disruptor torpedoes than ships, as they were shorter ranged. The fighters, in contrast to the torpedoes, were propelled by fusion drives and were lightened by small eezo cores. While the efficiency of delivery by missile versus fighter could be argued; the fact was that the small single manned machines were disposable.

Should dreadnoughts engage in a duel, there was going to be heavy damage to both side. Very costly damage that often made captains hesitant to engage. Fighters could be built cheaply by the hundreds, and allowed the carriers to strike at the dreadnought without put their multi-billion hull at risk. Most importantly, the disruptor torpedos provided a potent weapon with which the dreadnought could be destroyed by much smaller adversaries.

The first pass of fighters, which happened in mere seconds, had four torpedos from each fighter streaming towards the dreadnoughts and escorts. Without any carriers to launch a fighter wing to intercept, the aliens were doomed. Two dreadnoughts crumpled and twisted from the warping eezo fields, before being ripped apart by their own core's going critical. The other dreadnought managed to hold on, but was left helpless in the void. The _Everest_ quickly prowled on the defenseless vessel, its main gun tearing it apart in short order. A second pass was completed on the remaining cruisers, each fighters using its two final missiles before accelerating back towards their carriers.

It was a simple fact that carriers were just as deadly in space as in water. Disruptor warheads were simply so powerful that it allowed small disposable fighters to be put at risk instead of the capital ships, maximizing damage and reducing potential losses.

The battle wasn't over yet, though. Drescher now had the advantage, having a dreadnought and two carriers advantage, but she now had to manage the rearmament of all the strike fighters. The enemy frigate and cruiser count still slightly outnumbered her own, and combined had a lot of AA fire, but that was something she thought she could manage.

"Admiral! New ships coming through the relay!"

Just as the officer gave the warning, a trio of smooth ships appeared out of the relay. Drescher ordered them brought up on screen. Two were smaller frigates sized vessels with two protruding arms to either side. The other was cruiser sized with an additional arm protruding downwards. The middle of each vessels was empty.

"Admiral I'm receiving a message in Prothean!" Announced the comms officer. "It's says 'peace' !"


	6. Chapter 6

AN: I rewrote the first few chapters because I didn't want the Stargate humans using deadly force to intervene. It built them a different set of morals than I was going for.

 **SSV _Everest_**

 **Captain's Quarters**

* * *

"Stalling?"

"Yes, as much as we can," answered Drescher. "As motivating as your speech was, the fact is we haven't even thought of war for decades. Only the paranoia caused by the Mars Archives and the Relays kept our budget intact, you know that as well anyone."

"And the lobbying from the military industrial complex," muttered the Prime Minister. "How would stalling benefit us? Obviously these aliens want to come to the table, and we're at a position of strength right now. If you're right about our... precarious situation, surely we should sign a treaty as fast as possible?"

Drescher paused, she looked over at the holographic sensor read out in her quarters. The alien ship was just floating out by the relay, Alliance ships mpving in and out of the wreckage around it. A few alien escape pods had been located and sent towards the diplomatic ship, as a small gesture to show they were willing to initiate peaceful interactions.

"That's the key: they want to come to the table. If they're willing to send a delegation in the midst of an all out fleet battle; they will wait a few weeks, even months to finalize any talks," said Drescher. "And if we're right, and they don't have carriers, we've proven ourselves to be at a huge strategic advantage. Researching, designing, testing, building a whole new type of ship is a decade long process; we're not going to lose this edge."

"You still haven't answered, why stall?"

"We now know that there are at least two species in contact with each other, that doesn't bode well for us. We hardly kept up a military over the last hundred years, but these aliens? Even if they're the best of allies, you can guarantee they've been keeping together sizable armed forces just in case. Best case? Their standing armies are ten times the size of ours. Worst? Over a hundred, a thousand, times larger."

"So you want to stall to give us time to build more ships? Enlarge the military?"

"If these talks go south, we need a backup plan. Just ironing out a translator between us could take months, a few weeks to decide on a neutral meeting location. We could pretend that their ambassador insulted us, set back talks another month. To be honest, we could drag this out for a very long time. Look: just finding and training more workers for ship building takes forever. We also need a surge in the supply chain in everything from small arms to ship grade armor plating. Many of our systems will need expansion of facilities, heck if we want more than two carriers going at a time we're gonna need another yard. We _need_ time."

The truth was that the Alliance couldn't fight a war. They would very quickly run out of men, guns, ships, anything and everything. They didn't have the ability to wage a prolonged conflict. Drescher's counter attack was for the sole purpose of gaining time, and establishing a buffer for the Alliance to ramp up production.

"And in the meantime you could turn that system into the next Korean DMZ zone," continued the PM.

"Ideally, yes. Look, just getting the _Dallas_ and _Chennai_ barrier emitter replacement parts has been a nightmare. We're not on a war footing, hell we're not even on a peacetime footing. Our ability to replace losses is _nonexistent_ ."

"If we get a peace treaty now, we won't have to worry about our military size."

"But do we really know that? We know nothing of their cultures, they may renegade on a treaty with no care for their earlier promises. Also, we need time to look over this dreadnought we've captured. You can bet they're gonna want it back, nonnegotiable. But in a few months we could have the whole thing taken apart and scanned."

"You're starting to convince me. But what about these... projects... I hear that Admiral Stevens in pursuing?" questioned the PM.

"Some have promise. Especially the dedicated defense platforms. We can make dreadnought scale cannons much faster than we can make the ships. Put a few around the Shanxi relay and blow away anything that comes through before it can even try to get back to FTL. Surround the Relay with anti-matter mines, ground based dreadnought cannons to prevent orbital bombardment... he is inventive for sure."

"His son died on Shanxi?"

"During the counter-offensive. It's gotten him very involved in thinking how we could prevent something like this from ever happening again."

The Battle for Shanxi turned into more than just a border conflict. The frigate that accompanied the relay activation team had a little under two hundred personnel aboard. The science ship itself had a few dozen. That could've been waved away as a misunderstanding, if causing a short term negative sentiment in the population.

But the thousands killed during the initial invasion? Thousands more killed during orbital bombardment? All the people still lost in the rubbled of the city? The counter offensive had decimated the Shanxi militia as much as it did the aliens. Three more ships lost during Drescher's arrival, putting another thousand dead. The wounded were the worst, the micro-bullets of mass effect rounds turned limbs into mangled messes.

The pictures of Jinyang, burned and collapsed, already made their way back to Earth. The aliens were going to have shaky relations with the Alliance for a long time. Drescher could already imagine it now. An unprovoked attack that killed tens of thousands and wounded more would never be forgotten. If the Alliance was in better position, and knew more about the enemy, a continuation of war would have been almost certain.

Drescher knew one thing. The public would see Shanxi as an unprovoked attack and thus every death tantamount to murder. You don't just forget that a species began dialogue by dropping ordinance from orbit. Anytime there is death, the people remember.

"I think your idea has promise, if only to give us more time to think about how we should proceed. I'll let the ambassador know we don't want a hastily resolution," agreed the Prime Minister.

* * *

 **Alliance Security Council**

 **Arcturus**

The council was a collection of Members of Parliament that dealt with military appropriations and oversight, cabinet level military positions like the Minister of Defense, high ranking members of military, intelligence department heads, and the Prime Minister.

"This is a recreation of the orbital events around Shanxi immediately prior to William's counter offensive," presented the Intelligence Command Head Marcus Garret.

The video showed the alien fleet hanging above the world, before suddenly the dreadnought and supply ships fell out of position with the rest of the fleet.

"What are we looking at, exactly?" asked an MP.

"That was exactly what we were wondering. These four ships seem to just.. shut down. It wasn't anything we did, and the chances that four ships malfunctioned at the exact same time is astronomical," said Director Garret.

"So someone did this."

"Exactly. There wasn't anything detected on radar, no new heat signatures, so we began to suspect sabotage. But then we checked the LMS Satellite, that is the Long-term Magnetosphere Research Satellite. It was miraculously saved from destruction by the aliens, probably because it isn't military in nature and is very low profile in emissions. It probably looked like debris."

The intelligence director flipped the main screen to show a graph, prominent for a massive data spike right in the middle.

"You're looking at what a scientist would say is data from a minor coronal mass ejection hitting the atmosphere. However, from data collected by solar observation satellites orbiting Shanxi's star as well as the lack of geomagnetic storms and auroras, we know this is not the case."

"So what is it?" Asked the Prime Minister.

"You're looking at the affects of a massive artificial EMP being set off right next to a planet's magnetosphere. If you compare results to the United State Starfish Prime High Attitude Nuclear tests from July 9, 1962 you will see a startling similarity. This data was captured right when the alien ships went dark," said the Intelligence Director.

"Well obviously there was no nuke," countered the PM.

"You're saying the alien's ships were hit by an EMP, obviously not nuclear but there are theoretically other ways. And since it wasn't us, and the aliens sure as hell didn't do it to themselves, then someone else," asked General Davis rhetorically.

"Definitely artificial. The EMPs were perfectly aimed at the ships in a direction away from the planet, so much so that nothing even reached Jinyang below. If it weren't for the affects of the magnetosphere, we would've never known," agreed the Director. "Someone else was hitting the aliens over Shanxi.

"Perhaps we should also mention mercenaries Jack Harper and Eva Core," prompted General Davis.

"Another.. intriguing situation. They claim to have been set free by a third party, cell door ripped right out of the wall. Whoever -whatever- also retrieving an advanced artifact from the aliens, now known to be Turians. We can confirm this partially, their associate Ben Hislop was full of some alien nanotech and we did find evidence in the designated cave system that some sort of artifact was on the planet," reported Garret.

"Full of... nanotech?" Asked parliament member John Dobson.

"We're only just scratching the surface. You should get a report and funding request sometime in the next week. Hislop had all these cybernetics pushing through the skin, and when his blood was filled with nannites. They were ruined, probably a self destruct feature, so we have no real clue how they work. Mind you, it took an electron microscope to see them. Highly advanced."

"If they are ruined why so you want funding?"

"Just because they aren't working doesn't mean we can't investigate. Just by looking at Hislop's body we know they've done major augmentation to create some sort of super soldier. Things done to muscle and bones we've only written fiction stories about. From what Harper reports, the artifact they encountered turned anyone too close into its own soldiers."

"Sound crazy..."

"I agree. If we didn't have the body I'd never believe it. Harper was reluctant enough to come forward with it. If we didn't have this evidence I doubt he ever would."

"So another species of aliens came to recover their technology from the Turians? Why attack their ships," asked the Prime Minister.

"We don't really know anything. Whoever sent the EMPs might not be the same species as the one that made the artifact. But that brings even more questions; like why they decided to step in, what they wanted with the artifact. Maybe the EMPs were accidents caused by the Turians, but then who set the mercenaries free. Where'd the artifact go, maybe its still with the Turians," said Director Garret.

"Maybe the data off the dreadnought will shine some light," mused another MP.

"Hopefully."


End file.
